The Masochist's Institute of Technologyanecdotes of an ambitious MIT student

In some ways, IAP was not a pleasant experience at all.

I felt like I was once again drowning in a sea of to-do list items and obligations. I ran from here to there and everywhere… and still didn’t get everything done. My patience was wearing thin and my energy was running low. In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday that I managed to get some time to relax and recoup. And even so, my mind refused to let me sleep for more than three hours at a time.

Lately, I’ve been contemplating my life goals a lot. By the way, I have yet to finish adhering all the sticky notes to my wall (I’m not even sure if I’ll finish it, because it doesn’t seem to be helping me much). But that’s a little beside the point. Basically, I have narrowed my life down to ten goals. The bold ones are currently active/in the works:

1. Acquire Bachelors of Science in Economics and Management Science from MIT in June 2012
2. [secret ambition still in the works, not displaying it here]
3. Acquire MBA from Harvard Business School or MIT Sloan
4. Land triple-figure (or more!) job in large, well-known company
5. Start entertainment agency (Alpha Star Entertainment) OR Asian dance troupe (or both!)
6. Eventually start my own company (business technologies?)
7. Learn a lot of foreign languages, eventually get certification of proficiency in all the below (order of learning):
   Cantonese, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese
8. Devote self to Alpha Chi Omega and [secret]
9. Become a classy socialite! Have amazing wardrobe, throw and attend awesome parties & events, shop often, extensive network
10. Have a perfect lifestyle! Meet perfect guy, have one child, buy perfect house in inner suburbia, celebrate holidays with grandiose parties and decoration, be happy/healthy/wealthy/wise, devote self to a religion or cause

And before the new semester starts, I need to correctly identify how each of my activities this year connects to my life goals. If it doesn’t, then I obviously need to toss it out. Here are few of the activities in which I plan to participate:

• Classes - obviously contribute to Goal #1
• MIT Asian Dance Team - practice for #5
• Sekai no Melody - precursor to #5
• Dance Revelasian - more practice for #5
• MIT Concert Choir – #5 again
• MIT Chinese Choral Society - see above?
• Science and Engineering Business Club - networking myself into #4?
• Alpha Chi Omega sorority - obviously Goal #8

I’m a little worried that I might still be taking on too much, however. I can’t really think of what I would drop, though, if I were forced to make the choice. Probably one of the choirs and/or SnM, actually. It’s been an amazing three years, and I use it a lot in my spiel for job interviews… but to tell the truth things have gotten really slow around there and I can hardly keep up. Nor – sad to say – do I particularly want to, anymore…