QA for Cornell 2015

A friend got into Cornell University (Congratulations!) and had a few questions for me. I'd like to share them with other potential pre-freshmen. Let me know if you have any other questions about anything.

My best advice is to physically visit the schools that accepted you.

1. Is being in Cornell kinda isolated? I heard from someone that the town of Ithaca is kinda boring by itself.
It is physically isolated but there are constantly buses that go to NYC. Ithaca isn't actually boring once you learn more about it. Think of Duke... it's in Durham, where I hear it is pretty dangerous. Ithaca has a great farmer's market, everyone seems to good about the environment, there are beautiful gorges and waterfalls on campus, there are definitely things to do, and Cornell has SO much going on that even if you're too lazy to walk off campus, you'll always find things. For example, there are more clubs at Cornell than I have heard of at other schools. Like 1000 or something, maybe a little less (800-ish? but still a lot I'm guessing) registered officially. It is good to get away, but I think that getting away is more about leaving the bubble that is Cornell if you let it become monotonous and study all the time.

2. Is the workload impossible? I heard Cornell was pretty intense.
It is very intense, especially if you are an engineer or architect. But you can do it. I studied for one and a half days on a linear algebra test that had a mean of a 74 and I got a 99. I'm not a genius, no matter what compliments you kindly throw at me. There will always be someone who beats you, but if you work hard, you will be okay. Also keep in mind that a B average at Cornell is much more impressive than an A average elsewhere. Thousands of kids just like you have gone through Cornell and definitely graduated. You will learn how to make time for things you enjoy, and find that you enjoy so much more than you realized.

3. How is the weather? haha.
It's not very good. But the amazing thing is, whenever it gets over 50 degrees or is sunny for a day (or a few days in a row), suddenly everyone is like :D :D :D at you. This is actually significant because I always got the gut feeling that people at Cornell (staff and students) are extremely kind. For example, if you walk along and realize you need a dollar, suddenly three people will stop what they are doing and try to help you. This didn't happen to me but I was one of the three people who stopped. It's moments like these that you end up just expecting to see. Going back to weather: I thought it would be SO COLD after I got back from winter break, but it hasn't been bad at all. I'm not kidding, you're going to step into 30 degree weather and seriously not find it too cold. And when it is sunny, whether I am here or in Florida? I have absolutely never APPRECIATED the sun this much in my life. So I think it's good to go through "bad" weather for a few years. You'll see. But it is sunny sometimes.

4. What's your favorite thing about Cornell?
The people. Everyone finds people who connect with them. You know how if you meet someone and you get the feeling that you could be their best friend? I've made a lot of close friends and it hasn't been a year. Almost everyone (except Hotelies) has a hefty workload so you can all complain together. But that isn't the best part. People here are helping me in so many ways. I have friends who see God pursuing me, and know that He will reveal Himself to me. Or friends who rejected MIT and Caltech to come here because they felt better and happier here. And all these friends are so different (Cornell has really diverse people compared to other schools that I've visited). Keeping this in mind, you are going to change so much in these few years. Wouldn't you want the people who surround you to be this kind, interesting and giving? And wouldn't you want to help mold them?

5. Least favorite?
Feeling like I just tried really hard on an essay and realizing it wasn't good enough to get an A. I might get my first B in a class this semester.
Okay, I'm kind of kidding. It really isn't in terms of letter grades. Sometimes I personally feel terrible when I face my limitations. But limitations come in different levels, not just with school.
I think the number one thing that people are unhappy about is the work load. But then I think, why not be pushed? I don't want to be a wimp and go to Brown. (No offense.) The time is going by so quickly, anyway.
I think the things that disappoint me are often things that you would see at any school. Like if I see one of my friends crying, at first I feel like the whole world is unfair. (And then you think about things like Romans 8:28 and you're like ... oh-wait-a-moment. All is not lost! There is always hope! Let's keep going!) But a friend crying doesn't really have much to do with the school. Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

This is pretty incoherent

because I wrote these lines in many different sittings.

This is joke I saw somewhere online. An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician all get the assignment to build a fence around a flock of sheep. The engineer builds a square fence because it is easiest to construct. The physicist builds a circular fence because it maximizes the enclosed area. The mathematician disagrees: he builds a very small fence around himself and declares himself on the outside of the fence.

I meant to post this article a long time ago, but still highly recommend this article by The Onion... Republicans Vote To Repeal Obama-Backed Bill That Would Destroy Asteroid Headed For Earth.

For clarification, the picture to the right is not actually of me, and I have no idea who she is. My source pretty much doesn't remember who she is, either, I think.

They gave me a second piano student, but unfortunately I still haven't met her.

Wow, a year. Life is amazing.

My family is going to New York City for spring break! Ryan said it is like my home is coming to me.

One of my best friends is coming to visit me near the end of this semester. I am so lucky.

I'm really excited that I found out about something meaningful to my heart.

One night, we prayed for different countries at LIGHT 2011. I think something important happened here...

I discovered this song today:


Love always.

Right.

I realized that British men say "Right," pretty often.
These days have been quite filled with finding the activities I really like, and choosing which ones are worth my time. Homework is kind of inevitable. But I like to think, or at least pretend, when it comes to Entrepreneurship and Engineering Enterprise (maybe I will like it more soon! ?), that I really enjoy the information. It seems like the most effective way to do well. And justifies why I am here at all, instead of enjoying the beautiful Floridian outdoors (I live in New York? Weird.) that are now consistently prevalent. I do miss Florida.
My longest lasting "love" has been classical piano. I have a student now, for which I'm really excited. Hopefully she will be excited, too. And I am going to play for elderly people, which is always fun. I have not done it very frequently in my life. In fact I can only remember two times I played for a room full of them.
I really want to try fencing, but am afraid that might be too much. So today, I decided not to go...
This week I'm also going to our school's Campus Crusade for Christ general meeting, or "Cru." It is all over the country! One of my best friends here has talked to me about it. We have also talked about how whoever we end up marrying, if we do that is, is living around somewhere! She said he could be doing homework in his dorm right now! ...and that she hopes he's not dating someone else right now. But I don't mind, I mean, it doesn't really matter much at this point, and I'm sure she was at least kind of kidding. Hopefully her future husband had a good day today.
My first prelim of the semester is in a week. Oh man. Linear Algebra for Engineers... Where the odds are good but the goods have been odd since 1870. ;) Yeah, that is the year our college was founded. I thought the phrase needed some fixing up.
Swimming tomorrow!
Stay happy.

Unwanted again?

Thank you for your interest in The Boeing Company! We appreciate the time you took to complete our online application process for the following position:

Requisition Job Title
10-1019256 Intern - Student Engineer - Product Support and Logistics
Unfortunately, this job opening has been cancelled.

[cry] <-except not

I am learning all the different ways people can reject you. The nicest one so far was from a smaller (but very cool in my opinion) company that thanked me twice in the email, saying that they would let me know if there were a position available for me. At this point I believe that the day I find out what I'm doing this summer will be one of the top five best days of my life.
When we grow up, you can say, "Kejing! My son is so nerdy. He wants to be an engineer. Do you have any advice or information of contact for any summer opportunities?" And I will say "Yeah! Let him email or call me some time. I'll contact some of my friends from high school and college. But which major interests him?" And then I would find something cool for him to do, because I would (hopefully) be good at life and be in a great position to help the next generation (or you).

Edgar Allan Po(e/oh)

This is the sort of humor that is kind of mean but really hilarious at the same time. William found it!

It's Been Quiet

There is something really awful about not knowing what I'll do this summer. Besides this, the last week of the very kindly long winter break is going very well. My sprain at the leg/pelvis joint seems to be healing up, enough so that I can run again! Besides that, I have done a Jillians Michaels workout twice this week, and stretched every day. I still believe that my chest pain, which progressed negatively throughout the first semester, is not going to bother me significantly. I just need to stay calm, breathe deeply when stressed, and continue to become a more relaxed person. But not careless.
"Love Is A Place" by Metric begins:
There's spring in the air
They're sweeping the streets
Wind is a breeze
The sun becomes her, he agrees...
It's pretty simple, but I can imagine the sweeping of streets, particularly after the snow melts away enough so that it is possible. This is when you can really feel the sun shining on your body. Actually, while jogging today through my neighborhood past Nesters but not quite to Wooded Gorge, I sat on the sidewalk cross-legged, closed my eyes, and felt calm for a while. Though as I opened my eyes, a man walked down his driveway across the street to get the mail and said "Hi!"
Once, I asked my friend for some calming music recommendations, since he has thousands of songs in his iTunes and seems to particularly enjoy the ones that help him wind down. So he showed me all these Beck songs, such as "The Golden Age," and "Side Of The Road." I don't really think they work for me, but I'm glad he tried to help, because it serves the overall goal of becoming more relaxed.

I think there is a lot of love that I am almost always ready to give out to people. Some of my friends have told me that I have a good idea about the true nature of people when I meet them. So there is no point in trying to exploit me, now that I have put that idea out there in case you did not have it before this sentence entered your mind.

Neglecting to click on the Stats tab frequently, here is a thank you for reading to everyone- from the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Russia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Brazil, India, Moldova, France, Taiwan (which is a part of China, unless I am mistaken), Ukraine, and my current home country.

La Maison en Petits Cubes

I am in love with this.

I don't know if I can forgive myself.

Not only can I not at all juggle, I cannot meditate. I am working on it, though. Well, I was working on the meditation at the time I wrote that sentence. It is now 5 days later, and I barely meditated for 3 minutes since then. Way to fail. So then I tried stretching consistently, but who knows how that will go in the long run.
This morning I woke up kind of early and started worrying about things, and when I heard my watch alarm, I kind of swore under my breath, which was definitely a shock to me, because I don't usually curse. But if I ever do, I feel like I have a pretty good reason, and it generally isn't when other people are around. But if anyone were lurking in my room that early in the morning, maybe I would have.
To explain the title (oh yeah, the first two paragraphs weren't actually in response to that, so sorry to trick you), I basically sat on a couch all morning. Maybe because my friend's mom forgot to tell her I called. But then I think, well gosh, I was still pretty lazy. This is the result.
I downloaded Flipboard for the iPad. It's the App of the Year, apparently, and conveniently free. There is a section called FlipDesign, which has a bunch of interesting showcases of industrial and architectural designs.

For example, this cool designer, Luc van Hoeckel, came up with a wooden fan that moves without electricity. I think it's pretty impressive, yet so simple, though maybe a little weird to actually put in my future house... and hoping the latter phrase might enter existence one day:



And apparently, Sanaa, a group of Japanese architects, designed this watch that is supposed to look like a cat wrapping around one's wrist. Here's the black one:


And then there are these little cardboard chairs that you can recycle after your children grow out of them:


Another group of Japanese architects (why are they so good?) made these sticky notes from scrap wood:


I think that's probably enough to share for now. There were also some really interesting buildings and rooms, though.

Two weeks until a four month long... something awful but really worthwhile at the same time. There's college.

Medley

But separate's always better when there's feelings invooooolved
Oh oh
Heeey yaaa
Heeey yaaaa
I say what's cooler than bein' cool?
Ice cold
Lend me some sugah; I am your neighbor!
Leave the bourbon on the shelf
And I'll drink it by myself
If only we could move away
From here.
Let's disappear till tomorrow
Dis a ppea r
Back with my high school friends
Meetin' where the train tracks end
Maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul that love never lasts
And we've got to find other ways to make it alone and keep a straight face
Nothing is easy. Nothing is sacred. Why?
They got me on the run. Direct me to the sun
Only the young can break away, break away
Is there anyone out there?
I watched him spin you round and round
Why did you roll your dice, show your cards...
Tu sais que tu n'aimes pas ta réalité.

I'm home!

And I love the way my little brother is growing up...