Ratna writes

It’s crazy to think that second semester started all the way back in February. I don’t really think it’s flown by; I feel like I was well aware of the time as it passed, but it feels like it’s spread over so much time and so much has happened that I can’t remember it all. I really wish I could blog about each and every day of school, but seeing as I didn’t this year, I’m going to go back and recap some of the major highlights for me this semester. 7. Jet Lag As I aimed to explicate in a past post , my trip to India this spring was refreshingly disorienting, and put my college experience in this strange sort of perspective I can’t quite explain. I sent back frequent messages to friends over the break saying that I was going to try to be more adventurous second semester, and do my best not to get sick all the time. I don’t know if I fulfilled these goals fully, but this start to the second segment of the second semester equipped me with a bit more of a “go hard” attitude. We...

Toshio Shibata, Okawa Village, Kochi, 2007 This weekend has been spectacular. I'm just sitting down to dinner after a weekend of idyllic perfection with my high school biology teacher Mr. Chanania and his son Will in West Newbury, Massachusetts. I took the T around noon yesterday to Wonderland, the last stop on the blue line, where Mr. Chanania was waiting to commence my tour of the North Shore. We drove north, stopping at Salem to explore the eclectic and exciting Peabody Essex Museum . This highly pleasant and uplifting museum hosts a number of rotating exhibits in addition to its permanent collections from around the world. Our favorite display was one by Japanese photographer Toshio Shibata called "Constructed Landscapes," which features the interaction between nature and man-made infrastructure while playing with size and scale. After our visit and a lunch to catch up, we got back into the car, I eager to see the legendary new Chanania residence! I knew that...

My best friend is taking next semester off to travel the world and learn to live, so I wanted to get down some words of advice before he takes off. Read.  You get to just READ. Don't read so you sound well-read. Don't read things every intellectual is supposed to have read. Read so your nerves tingle and you get that literature high that only the perfect book or poem or play for you can provide. Try to read a lot. Make lists of books you want to read and then keep track of what you've read, but permit yourself to get distracted. Taste the words. Seek conversations. Make it a goal to sit down and listen to the life stories of everyone you meet, at internships or on the subway or in your family. Inspiration is everywhere. This is the most important thing you'll do all semester because at the end of it, your time off won't be a list of countries or facts or "work experience" -- it will be a series of people you met who will have changed your view. Th...

Harvard exists at a very different pace over the summer. People get lost in conversation waiting for the signal to change and forget to cross the street at crosswalks. Pedestrians make eye contact and smile at one another. The hustle and bustle of this college town slows down for these few weeks, and it's a very different environment than we're used to. It's sad to see so many of the campus' student's gone, but my friends who are here have been finding new ways to spend time together and enjoy the sunshine and the end of a euphorically successful freshman year. On Saturday night, a group of my favorite people gathered at Reylon's gorgeous new summer apartment (see above) to celebrate the completion of our exams! Eliza, Allison, Javier, and I headed over from Greenough to salsa / Bhangra / twerk with me as DJ. I very quickly realized that my iPod does not have much music that is in English. It was lovely to finally spend some crazy time with the frien...

The last few days have been emotional with packing and moving and no more exams and lots more goodbyes. Wednesday night we threw a fabulous surprise farewell party for a very oblivious Reylon, with many of his closest friends and entrywaymates turning out to shower him with love, song, and pizza. Yesterday came my last exam of the year, a truly tragic event -- I stayed in my Latin classroom until the very last possible moment, twiddling my thumbs and staring at my professor and trying to draw out my freshman year as long as possible. I cried when I turned in my test and left the room. In the evening, the Opportunes had our last private gig of the season at the Faculty Club (throwback to our first gig this year!), where our beautiful seniors performed their last public rendering of "Midnight Train to Georgia" amidst laughs from the audience and tears from Bernie. After a night of packing and snacking and New Girl , I fell asleep hoping to stay in...

Over the course of the year, I've observed a trend in my dining hall ways: I sit closer and closer each day to the conveyer that takes away our dirty dishes. It seems more convenient when picking a seat for a meal to keep an eye on your way out, so you can "beat the line" and get out of Annenberg in Harvard time for class or a nap or whatever before everyone else starts to queue up ahead of you. Well, now my freshman year is ending and I kind of want to sit as far away from that exit point as possible. Because when I sit near the dish line it means I'm in too much of a hurry to talk to the people around me or look up at our stained glass wonderland or taste my Veritaffle. And now I wish I'd had more of those initially awkward Annenberg conversations where I eventually find out that the person across from me also took a gap year or is a Classics major or loves the Opportunes, instead of staring into my phone or pretending I was doing work during my meal. I ...