Ratna writes

I can’t get over how good my first semester at college has been. Not a thing is missing from the way I had pictured the experience, or from what the experience could be. It is everything. From where I live to what I learn, I have loved it all. First of all, my balance of classes couldn’t have been better. Deciding to take only one humanities class this semester was a really interesting examination of what is important to me -- I found that I really enjoy exploring disciplines that tickle my brain with challenge, while still being able to run to the Latin classroom for reminders of my intellectual ability.  I fell in love with evolutionary biology. I’ve written essays on my love for nature but this semester’s bio class has given me a renewed awe and appreciation for the natural world and its magical life forms. The class also heightened my appreciation for the support system I have in place at school -- an almost-failed first exam made me reach out to every academic advisor...

I kicked off the holiday season with two of my favorite boys last night, enjoying the opportunity to hear Naturally Sharp, Nizar's VTech a cappella group, sing Christmas carols in different parts of Reston Town Center. Patrick and I shivered in the cold as the Ho-Ho-Hokies sang by the big ol' tree in Fountain Square, warmed up during their performance at Clyde's, and grinned as they serenaded skaters at the ice rink. The group sang a set of Christmas songs and then exploded into some Natty classics -- spanning from Backstreet Boys to Disney. It was so great to see in person this group I've heard so much about from Niz! And wonderful, of course, to kick off winter break with my varlets.

Videos from my a cappella group's fall concert are now out! Click here to watch!

This weekend has been amazingly enjoyable and serene and I want to fight off the drowsiness effected by endless cold meds for a few minutes to write about it. The end of the week started in grand style, with the fall "jam" of my a cappella group,  The Harvard Opportunes -- this is our biggest performance of the semester. I had been feeling under the weather earlier in the day, but am proud to report that this was the most high-energy (and energizing) performance I've ever been a part of. (Videos will be up soon!) What made the night extra special was the plethora of people who came to see me! Almost all of my friends and advisors here on campus were able to come, and there's nothing like performing for an audience you love. Papa even flew up from Virginia to watch my show! After our awesome gig, we retreated to one Opportune's room to celebrate our success and spend time with former members of the group. It was great to see everyone so excited after our...

I had a moment today when I couldn't believe that around this time last year, I was roaming the streets of southeast DC alone daily, looking for inspiration and education and adventure. I was so unafraid of being alone and became so good at it. Well, where I am now, one doesn't have to go looking for education and inspiration. Now that it is literally at every corner, I'm already feeling like I won't have enough time to learn "it all." I don't want to concentrate in anything -- if it were possible, my education would consist of an infinite number of lectures on an infinite number of topics. But until I've designed that "Everything" major, I'll continue to vary my course selection salad as much as I possibly can. This morning, my math and bio professors breezed so quickly through the material that it was literally risible (though perhaps I shouldn't have been the one laughing). My seminar on climate change makes me think about m...

I'm running a little low on sleep but I really want to write about my day to "memorialize" what has been the best birthday I can remember. It started last night with dinner with my wonderful peer advisor Allie Pace and a phone serenade from Nizar's a cappella group, Naturally Sharp . I returned to my dorm around 10 to an explosion of my twin Kirin, accosting me with chai and donuts and Nic and love, which lasted the rest of the night. The wonder that is Reylon came over shortly before midnight, along with a trickling in of awesome Greenough hallmates, who made too much noise for a good while as we awaited the countdown to midnight. Javier, my Colombian brother, made an artful entrance with "It's a girl!" balloons and candy imported all the way from South America for me. Ayyy! Our gang complete, we enjoyed Kirin's delirious spoken word recitations with raucous laughter until a perfectly in-tune serenade at midnight, before Sophie went ...

Although I totally knew it wouldn't be feasible for me to blog daily from college, it really pains me that I can't. I am loving  my time here. Loving it. And I truly wish I could share it with you all everyday. But although I can't write daily, I thought I'd check in today to describe what's been one of my best days here so far. The day started with breakfast with Kirin Gupta, my Indian gap year-taking twin on campus. We got to exchange notes on the "first year of college after gap year" phenomenon, as well as exchange both general notes on our academic interests and expressions of our undying love for one another. Always a great way to start the day. On the way back to my dorm, I purchased some organic kiwis as a birthday present for my kiwi-loving roommate Eliza Chang! I arrayed these on her desk before walking down to the river in today's 70s and cloudless weather. Taking place today was the Head of the Charles Regatta, the world's larges...

Walking back to my dorm after an extra help session for bio yesterday (where I basically had to admit to my professor that I hadn't understood a thing she's said over the last three weeks), I called a friend to tell him about the very humbling, almost humiliating, kind of hilarious experience. He made some sympathetic remarks, and when I responded with a classically Ratna, "but isn't this what it feels like to learn?!" he mumbled something along the lines of, "I guess..." My attention in class wanes as the week waxes, but a byproduct of this is that I also wax philosophical. It's almost laughable how lost I feel in some (all?) of my classes right now, and remarkable how okay I am with it. My little sister was talking to me last night about how high school sometimes makes her feel stupid, to which yesterday's Ratna responded the following: "I have purposely plunged myself into experiences designed to make me feel 'stupid' this se...

I've been making a lot of music with my amazing a cappella group The Opportunes recently, but I took some time this weekend to hit the "studio" with piano prodigy Sam Pottash, recording one of my favorite Elvis songs as covered by Ingrid Michaelson. Click here to have a listen!

Walking to breakfast this morning, I had the weirdest thought. "My cell phone case doesn't match my outfit." Completely random and especially odd because on most days, my outfit doesn't even match my outfit. But the thought crossed my mind, and I made a mental note to request Priya to order me a case more neutral than my bright turquoise one. I had received an email informing me of a package waiting for me in the mail room this morning, and, after breakfast with Javier, I hurried to the basement of the Science Center to check it out. Waiting for me was the most attractive and thoughtful gift I've ever seen -- a case for my iPhone. But rather than being composed of neutral colors or adorned with a brand name, this case is a patchwork of photographs taken during my gap year, of images close to my heart. Tierney Manning is my big sister, one of many amazing female role models I'm blessed to know and have spent time with during the year. When I called her...

I would usually be displeased and/or confused waking up and showering at 6:40 on a Sunday morning, but today was an odd sort of exception. My sleep stirred to unimaginably raucous chanting outside my room, of "RATNA IS AN OPPORTUNE! RATNA IS AN OPPORTUNE!" I opened my dormitory door and was at once drenched in champagne and noise. Back up -- what's an Opportune? I've spent the last week auditioning for various a cappella groups, preparing an excerpt from Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah  for my short solo audition the first night, different assigned songs for nights two and three, and finally, after much sleepless deliberation, The Chain for my full-length solo yesterday. At each of these audition nights, we were also taught our parts in a fairly complicated background "block" which we were to spew out again after a moment's practice, leaving my mathematically inept mind in a tizzy (music notes are just numbers!). The process was at times nerve-wrac...

I wish I could write daily and tell you guys how the move to college has been the most beautiful transition of my life, but the rampant socializing and sickness that are so quintessential to my existence tend to render this intensity of writing impractical.  Everything is great. This week is Shopping Week, which sounds like we can all run around and take whatever classes we want for a week with neither homework nor responsibility, but actually ends up being mayhem as very few of us currently know what we're doing with our lives...or our semesters.  I do think I know what I'm taking, and my schedule is looking like: -- OEB 10: Foundations of Biological Diversity An integrated approach to the diversity of life, emphasizing how chemical, physical, genetic, ecological and geologic processes contribute to the origin and maintenance of biological diversity. Topics to be covered include the evolution of metabolic pathways, multicellularity and structura...

And so comes to a close this crazy journey. Thank you so much for accompanying me along the way, whether it was by training me, teaching me, advising me, "socializing" with me, talking to me, listening to me, or simply by reading along. I am reminded each day, by something or the other, how happy I am with my decision to have taken a gap year. The incredible trips I made and people I met seem to weave themselves beautifully into my every experience, and I couldn't be more thankful. So thank you, friends, and thank you, planet, for my 365 gap days.

Day 365 began in beautiful gap year style. I woke up late to lazy meditation and leisurely yoga before meeting Allie Pace, my Peer Advising Fellow, for lunch and coffee at the quaint Café Pamplona. This was the  perfect way to start my last gap day. Allie was eager and excited to hear stories about my year in detail, and made me go back and appreciate, once again, the incredible experiences I've been blessed enough to enjoy this year, from Brasil to Bogotá to Bombay to Boston. She certainly invited me to think about every aspect of my life as a student and a person, and we enthusiastically celebrated the beauty that is life and love and learning. A comment Allie made about only having two years left here at Harvard reminded me immediately of Marina Keegan's " Bygones ," which I read to Allie at the table, leaving her, as it should have, speechless. My goal was to have memorized the poem by now, but I'm a bit behind. However, as "Bygones" has been o...

My morning walk to Annenberg is not unlike those of  my majestic mornings in Bogotá. I made the walk today to have breakfast with Kirin Gupta, a fellow member of the Class of 2016 who took a gap year also. Apart from our superficial similarities (Indian girls, drastic haircut-getters, Ingrid Michaelson fans, gap year-takers, Spanish enthusiasts), it was great to finally meet this  chica and learn that like me, she's craaazy. We had a high energy breakfast full of laughs before I dragged her to a session called "Understanding Your Math Placement Score." Although I still do not understand my math placement score, two wonderful things came out of attending this session. First, I bumped into Javier Aranzales, Bogotá boy and ballet dancer with whom I'd exchanged some salsa  obsession messages via Facebook earlier in the year. Second, the three of us received news of our Freshman Seminar applications, and each was accepted into his/her top choice! I'l be taking...

This morning began with Community Conversations , a facilitated conversation between members of our entryway about diversity of race, nationality, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs, etc. It was stunning to see the remarkable richness of culture among members of our entryway alone! This was a great way to learn a bit more about our Greenough peers in a really open environment.  From here, Marcy, Alex, and I headed to a meeting with our academic advisor, Elaine Strunk. Elaine is the Manager for Sustainability Engagement in the Office of Sustainability here at Harvard. This informal lunch in the grass was a great way to learn more about Marcy and Alex and their interests, as well as get to meet Elaine. A funny moment came after our meal when a dining hall worker lectured the four of us on how to properly separate our waste materials from lunch before throwing it out. Preaching to the choir, bro. Next, I attended a lecture called "What Darwin Didn...

Days here are becoming so packed that I have to take notes during the day to remember everything in the evening! I had breakfast with a very special friend this morning -- Priya Gill! We wanted to say one last goodbye, and to discuss our concerns and quandaries as we both embark on hugely new phases of our lives. We also read a bit of Latin together so that Priya could go home and say, "I studied Latin at Harvard." Farewells aside, I made my way to our "first official welcome to Harvard" from Dean Shapiro, our Resident Dean. Directly afterwards, Eliza, Dipti, and I attended a brief presentation called "Student Computing @ Harvard" -- while figuring out the college's technology, I also completed my remaining Freshman Seminar applications from my cell phone to make the deadline at noon -- phew! We then headed over to check our campus mailboxes. Send me love! 1500 Harvard Yard Mail Center Cambridge, MA 02138 We enjoyed our first lunch at...

I'm already beginning to wade in late-night (academic) housekeeping tasks, but I'd like to give you all a run-through of my first official day of orientation! We rolled out of bed and down the street from our hotel this morning to Greenough Hall, to get me settled into my dormitory once and for all. We made a super-efficient team, with Priya hanging up my clothes and lugging things upstairs as Papa fetched breakfast and opened boxes while Mama and Nani made my bed and everything around it and I just admired everything. For the person who did the least amount of physical labor, I sure seemed the most wiped out at the end of our morning moving sesh, and I arrived at the ID Services office looking less than optimal for my Harvard ID photo. The photographer seemed to sense this, as he commented on how nervous I looked, and went on to try to soothe my nerves. Seeing the ID printed was a joy however, and I almost squealed with delight when he handed it t...

Nani, Priya, and I had a "hearty laugh" over our sleeping arrangements yesterday, with all 5 feet and 8 inches of Priya crammed onto a tiny armchair for the night. This accommodation naturally didn't make for the most commodious night, and we all remained in varying states of asleep-ness until around noon today. At this time, we headed to Boston Harbor to eat lunch at Wagamama and ogle at sky writers adorning the heavens with ribbons of Red Sox pride. Then it was quickly onward to Target for a stop to collect last-minute items like notebooks, hangers, and a mini fridge (everything purchased happened to be turquoise). In the afternoon, we stopped by Greenough, my dorm, again, and I got to meet my roommate for the year! Eliza and I had talked online, but it was wonderful to make her acquaintance in person . . . and to see our lovely room! The whole Gill squad joined in and we spent the better part of an hour rearranging furniture until we had turned our two individual ...

We got up at 7:30 this morning, a bit late to meet our hoped departure time of 7:00. After packing, a cake, a prayer, and turning back two times, we were finally off for Cambridge around 10. I listened to music on Priya's amazing headphones in the car along the way, as Nani fed me bowl after bowl of the biryani she had prepared just for me. We stopped briefly in Annapolis to get a photograph of Mama and me at a marina where we were photographed together 15 years ago. I tried to get sleep at one point, and was fairly successful, but woke speaking a crude Punjabi line from "Angreji Beat." It didn't seem like long before we were approaching Cambridge, my home for the next four years. We all gaped like children at the buildings and the river and the shops, before locating Greenough Hall and taking a peek (move-in is on Monday). We wove through the campus a bit longer before making our way to our hotel. We had plans to go out for dinner but scrapped them in light ...

I woke up this morning probably too late for everything I had to do today. After breakfast and some further polishing of my Freshman Seminar applications, it dawned on me that out of the myriad times I've been to the doctor this year, not one was an annual exam. We scrambled to make some appointments and set out for first one and then the other, with haphazard packing shoved in between. This monotony of chaos was broken in the afternoon by a visit by my beautiful sister Iman Karram to say goodbye. Although she only stayed for a few minutes, we both got to spill our thoughts to one another one last time before I set off tomorrow. I'm so thankful she came to visit. After my second doctor's visit in the afternoon, we bought some locally grown peaches and then Nani helped me dye my hair with henna. As this goop settled on my head and started to dry, I gave Nani her first iPad lesson, setting up her email, iTunes, Facebook, and Skype accounts. I'm looking forwar...

Today, Mama and I embarked on an exciting errand -- purchasing my new computing contraption for college. We headed to the bank first, and Mama shared her perspective on a lot of aspects of our lives with me en route. We arrived at the mall after catching up and picked out a perfect MacBook Pro for me. An hour later, we took this and other assorted Apple accessories with us and drove to Fairfax Corner, where I met up with Woojin, Patrick, and Taylor for our Bristow adventure. During the drive to Jiffy Lube Live, Woojin helped us "study" for the concert we'd be experiencing by playing his "Kelly Clarkson and The Fray Concert Prep" playlist for us in the car. We enjoyed a fancy dinner at Subway where I was nicknamed "The Storm" and we learned of Wooj's Tyler Ward obsession before making our way to JLL. We now sit in the lawn enjoying the air and ambience as we listen to Carolina Liar open for Ms. Clarkson and The Fray!

I was awoken after a wonderful night of slumber at 10:08 today by my LaurAlarm clock -- my Cornellian sister had much to share about her first day of college classes, and we gushed about all the usual things, including gap year interactions and Marina Keegan . After a late breakfast, Nani helped me pack, once and for all, my first batch of Harvard apparel, a bag containing woolens galore. As we set this suitcase aside, I spruced my room up a bit and started a set of applications for some Freshman Seminars that will be offered next year. I first finished my essay for Complexity in Works of Art: Ulysses and Hamlet and then worked on applications for Happiness in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis and Public Policy Approaches to Global Climate Change . It is remarkable how much my travels during this year helped in writing these last two apps, as I could cite counseling at Sasha Bruce and meditation in Mumbai as two major "experiences" I've had with happiness, and coul...