It's a beautiful day: After a first quarter filled with self-doubt, self-loathing, and general uncertainty plus occasional regret, I finally got some closure. After getting a somewhat ambiguous score on the econ final (how our final grades are actually calculated is a giant mystery - the final decision on whether or not a student passes is apparently made through a meeting of the econ profs factoring not only test scores but student effort), I emailed my economics professor and he told me my scores were good enough to pass. HALLELUJAH!!! Thank you for your prayers, God was clearly at work. (More on this later) I spent so much time asking other first years if they thought I would pass, and people drew all kinds of charts and graphs explaining their personal theories on how grade distributions at Wharton work, but I've learned that the only sure thing to do is go straight to the source. I got the email from my prof just as I was about to head out to a day long recruiting event, and as I walked down the street the air seemed crisper - a giant weight had been lifted from my shoulders!!!
Econ Final Exam Grade mix-up: Through some sort of catastrophic error, three hours after the econ final exam grades were posted for students, an email from faculty went out saying that the grades posted were incorrect and that the correct grades had been reposted. Isn't that awful!? It's so traumatic!! All scenarios are pretty bad: some people got high scores and rejoiced only to discover hours later that they had actually failed, and some people got low scores and were depressed for hours ("Why am I even here at Wharton") before discovering that they had actually done just fine. Personally, I think the worst scenario is getting a bad score and getting the "just kidding email" only to get the SAME score the second time ^^;; One guy in my class got a good score the first time and got an even BETTER score the second time! What a jerk. lol I missed all the drama because I resolved not to check my econ grade until after I had taken the accounting midterm, so I have no war stories to tell about The Great MGEC Mixup.
Recruiting season hits: Like fall leaves change color, so does student attire. Before recruiting, we were all dressed in flip flops and t-shirts. Now that recruiting has startd, on any given day half my class is in jeans, sneakers, and fleeces, and the other half is dressed in full suits. It's really weird.
SEPTA on strike: Philly public transport goes dark. No buses, just cabs and lots of walking. Fortunately I live relatively close to school, but people who live farther out are doing a lot of cabbing. I am pretty bitter about the fact that I am a slow walker and get passed on the sidewalk regularly on my way to school (like slow cars in the right lane get passed). It doesn't matter how athletic my shoes are and how fast I walk. I blame it on the fact that I'm short, but I get outpaced by shorter people too. Booo... XD
Quarter Two officially starts tomorrow, mere seconds after Quarter One ended with a bang with the MGEC Final today. (Managerial Economics aka MGEC pronounced "magic"). MGEC: the most failed class at Wharton, and the source of endless jokes ("This is what you came to school for, to learn wizardry"). Should mention that the material covered in this class includes theory by John Nash, aka the mathematician played by Russell Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind." Yes, the one who was clinically insane, and that's why he was able to come up with the stuff that we had to learn!!
Quarter One Highlights: - Seeing my cohortmates dressed as a) Ninja Turtles b) giant chickens c) Spiderman at tonight's Cohort Halloween Party - Funny but unfortunate: a friend of mine who shall remain anonymous contracted H1N1 aka swine flu, and also told me that it was going around her cohort. She told me that a bunch of people were comparing symptoms, and they all figured out that they had it. (Of course, it's an awful thing to have, but it has the most ridiculous name). She told me about a guy she knew who got swine flu, and then weeks later got the regular flu!!! We sympathized but also snickered. lol - Late night study sessions in the common room of our apartment building. A group of about six of us have been living in common room for the past few weeks studying like crazy. I've officially become one of Those Asians. Grad school requires WAY more studying than undergrad did - no more catching up the last week before the final! If you don't keep up, you will get completely left behind. - Running into old faces all the time. I've run into my cousins twice now on the street, and a friend from UVA too! (Brandon) Life is funny, it amazes me how many of my good friends from the past are now in my life again because of where I am. (My friend Zac, who I never thought I'd see again outside of Japan!) I remember being really sad saying goodbye to some of them before, who knew when I would see them again - but I guess this just shows that only God knows what's in store for me. You never know where life will lead!
I already have homework to do for tomorrow!! Sigh. XD
Now that life has become an exercise in managing time and stress (who would have thought I'd ever be rationing out my time as carefully as I did my money?) I am reduced to... watching videos of puppies on youtube! Sometimes you just need a break. It's not time wasting if there are therapeutic effects XD
...AHAHA Ohhh Internet. What won't you do. The world has become a wackier place because of you. I can't even imagine how many people saw these videos and trained their own dogs for months in hopes of posting their own video. (If I were a dude and I had a dog I would TOTALLY do it lol)
Also, I told my roommate about the beer dogs, and my Learning Team group member's dog who stretches like a cat (actually it does the "Downward Dog" yoga position, which is fair since it is actually a dog) and her response was:
"I once knew a dog in Korea who could wink. I saw it. Our family friend paid $1,000 for that dog, and that was like years and years ago." (So basically you should discount that dog to find its Net Present Value.) LOL hahahahaha =D
Now that xanga's readership has largely moved to Facebook, I feel free to let my hair down a little XD Today I am totally exhausted from incredible amounts of work, and I didn't feel like saying hi to anyone. I looked and felt like a mess and yet I'm always behind. I hear that everyone feels this way during their 1st year 1st quarter, but that doesn't make it less rough.
In a nutshell, it was a testimonial skit set to Lifehouse's "Everything," about our (human) fall from grace but how because of Jesus we have hope and a defender in Him. The girl struggles with dating, feeling incompetent in schoolwork, feeling judged by fashionable society, alcohol, and other stuff too. I think I identified with so many of the things I saw in this video, I found myself crying. To be exact, the part when "Jesus" stepped forward and fought off all the troubles attacking the girl and the audience erupted into cheers is when I started crying. First of all, maybe I haven't seen a WHOLE lot of testimonial skits, but usually they are taken pretty seriously and I think this is the first time I remember seeing the audience burst into cheering. Frankly, my church is really conservative (people don't lift their hands during worship, much less burst into cheers!) so I was amazed. But of course we should be shouting for joy!!
Seeing that part of the skit was a visual reminder that in Jesus I have someone who is always on my side and fighting for me, and because of Him, I don't have to fight on my own. I'm crying out of joy that someone like me, utterly imperfect as I can, could still gain eternal life because Jesus Christ bore my punishment, and that this eternal life can never be taken away from me.
Struggling with schoolwork and the fashionable society part is me to a tee. The women in business school are beautiful, bright, articulate, well-dressed almost all the time (I don't know how people have time and energy!!) And I often feel stupid and underdressed. A lot of people here have already taken a lot of these classes before and have strong quantitative backgrounds. I am HORRIBLE at math and I wonder almost everyday how I managed to get in here (lately I don't wonder AS much, maybe like once every few days lol). A week ago, I thought to myself that someone on the application committee had missed the ball somewhere and I was a little angry that my relatively low quantitative score on the GMAT hadn't tripped any wires and safely kept me out of a hostile environment. And then I heard the vice dean (who is from India) mention that the Indian business school system screens (screened?) applicants solely based on their score on a quantitative test, and commented that it didn't work because how could a single test score capture someone's leadership ability or vision? When I heard that I wanted to cry, I was so grateful.
I need to remember what I am defined by. It doesn't matter what everyone else is doing. I am here because God brought me here for a purpose. Because of Him, none of that other stuff matters and I am free from all of it! Now that is something to celebrate =)
It’s been awhile since my last update, and that is because things here keep me pretty busy!I’ve been here for almost two months now, and it never ceases to amaze me how suddenly and drastically my life changed when I went back to school.The other day on my way back from class, I watched a squirrel race up a tree lugging a huge piece of bread by its teeth.The squirrel made it to a branch 20 feet above ground only to drop the bread all twenty feet to the ground.Some days I feel like that greedy squirrel and I wonder if I’m going to drop it all, but other days I feel like things are all right with the world and I’m filled with the peaceful knowledge that God always provides.While there’s a lot of work here, there is still time for play.I see squirrels the size of rabbits on my way to class, and I’m sure it’s a result of the Philly food.Eating is a major activity here in Philly!
I somehow ended up on the mailing lists for the Wharton African Students Association and the Wharton Vegeterian Club, neither of which I am qualified for.It’s hard to remember what I signed up for though, since I am bad at saying no, and walking through the activities fair was like walking through a minefield.The worst is when you get roped into joining an activity because you started talking to one of the club members before realizing that they are actually part of the club that was next to the one you were aiming for!!
On the whole, I suppose things are starting to settle into a rhythm, although it seems that things move at such a rapid pace that once you get adjusted, it’s time to change again.The people here are all so amazingly talented and smart, today I totally bombed a very difficult Economics exam and the whole time I started to wonder if there had been some kind of crazy mistake.How did I even get here?Whose idea was this??But I think I’m not alone – my classmate agreed with me: “I think about that often.Like everyday.”Hahah XDWhile we all wonder together how we’re going to make it through Hell Week, I am grateful for the opportunity to be here.
