getting back in the groove by Aiden H. '28

Once upon a time in a land far, far away

A group of schoolchildren gathered to recount their days.

One says they cried, one says they laughed, but they all agreed in one very unfortunate path.

That when the leaves fall down, sky turns blue to grey

The freshman will forever cease to live in their PNR ways

Instead learning the trials that come to all.

Beware, the sophomore fall!

***

Uh so yeah I’m gonna be a sophomore, and just saying that didn’t feel like dramatic enough of an opening. I wanted it to sound like an old nursery rhyme or something, but I also didn’t care that much so I wrote it in like 3 minutes.⁠01 WITHOUT rhyme zone or AI mind you. so like, speedy

But anyway, people say sophomore year is the worst, but it’s also kinda the year class-wise, at least for 10B. You’re done with the GIRs and starting classes specifically for your major, but everyone in the major still has to take them, so the class sizes are still larger and the classes are well-known.

Well funny enough (I planned it), this happens to be the first day of classes on campus, so I got an exclusive look into the so-called awful time everyone is having! This will be nothing too crazy, but it is for sure something I will want to look back on at the end of the semester to see if this excitement is just first-week delusion or the start of a new chapter in my MIT career (and feelings towards it).

Here are the classes, in order of appearance:

5.07 – Introduction to Biochem (MWF 9:00 AM)

I was like a teenager on the phone with their first crush: sitting in the back, kicking my feet, smiling and blushing trying to hide my excitement. I have ALWAYS wanted to take a biochem class. I might seriously take 5.13⁠02 Organic Chemistry II just so I can take 5.08,⁠03 Biochem II depending on how this class goes. It almost feels dissociative to be in this class. I feel like biochem has a lot of topics that we go our whole lives, in and out of the classroom, vaguely knowing that they happen but never really understanding step-by-step. Like babies know they’re alive, kids know we have cells, high schoolers know we metabolize, but no one really knows what is actually going on. To actually be in the class knowing that in like 7th grade I was sitting there thinking “This will all make sense one day” is trippppppy.

Judging the syllabus though it’s gonna be pretty lethal…

5.601 – Thermodynamics I (MWF 10:00 AM)

I have a love-hate relationship with the little thermodynamics that I know. In high school chem and 5.111,⁠04 gen chem, or officially Principles of Chemical Science I did very well in the thermodynamics units, always finding the work to be fairly easy and not painful to do.

Having to sit down and listen to thermodynamics, though, does fill me with enough boredom to tranquilize a horse, or like, Godzilla. I’ll do the pset I’ll learn the topic whatever whatever, but today was just like defining temperature and pressure. Praying we get past PV=nRT in the first week.

18.03 – Differential Equations (MWF 1:00 PM)

Long story short I was gonna ASE this class and then missed the sign-up deadline, so I lowkey know the first half of the class, and the second half I’ve heard is harder but very very doable. Most people at MIT take this class anyway, so I have no abundance of people to help me.

The professor is a very fun and energetic Russian guy, but he was just reading the lecture notes word for word and maybe adding an example here and there. If it doesn’t get more useful it might be an “Aiden goes to lecture when he doesn’t already know a topic” kinda class.

10.10 – Introduction to Chemical Engineering (MWF 2:00 PM)

Every single sophomore who declared 10/10B/10ENG has to take this class right now, so it’s just 44 of us in a room, fresh-faced and wide-eyed trying to figure out basic ChemE. It gives a strong sense of community among us since we’re all sitting in there at the same time, so super cute.

On the other hand, the professors and peers described the class as very very challenging. They are either:

1. Trying to hype themselves up and in reality the class is just fine
2. I won’t make it past October

Time will tell!

11.041 – Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development (TR 9:30 AM)

This is the only class I didn’t have today, so this one will have to remain a mystery in the public eye for now.

When I read through all the HASS classes to pick one, this was at the top of my list because:

1. It is so societally and politically important.
2. It is something I could never learn to the same extent on my own outside of an academic environment, full of professionals and hand-selected literature to teach me (whereas I feel some HASS classes are things I could learn/do on my own time without much penalty).

It is a 1.5 hour discussion-based class, which means lots and lots of readings!! The final project is to design your own city and defend it to the class, so you already know I’m about to have the craziest city name you’ve ever heard.

***

I simultaneously feel so prepared and so underprepared for the coming semester.

I didn’t do much this summer⁠05 Relative to the MIT students and LinkedIn, but not relative to most people or college freshman. Summer should be for nothing! and it was beautiful. I did do my UROP part-time, but it was remote and asynchronous, so I mostly did it in bed or past 11 PM, so I don’t really count it as “work” as much as a 9-5. Most of my days were spent waking up late, seeing friends, watching TV, swimming, or seeing a movie. It was, all in all, entirely peaceful.

In part because of this summer, and in part because this is my 14th year of school, this is the first time in my life I’m not itching to go back out of boredom. School has always very much been a cop out for me, and for the first time I’m kinda enjoying just living. (Still need the A’s for grad school though so bye-bye drive-in movies and swimming in the reservoir). While this makes me slightly less inclined to sit down and do a pset, I think it means that I’m at a better place where I’m enjoying life more, so I’ll take it as a good sign.

With everything in me, I want to try and still do things outside of class as much as I can, to make “summer” last longer. Here’s a list of life things I want to do in tandem with the academia that is about to suppress it. This isn’t meant to be a super in-depth or rigid list, but more just ideas of things I would like to force myself to do more (i.e. sticking to numerical goals is not that big of a necessity as long as I do something a little bit, but also that’s what people who don’t finish their goals say so adkfhgduhfv):

1. Read more during the semester. Not too much more, just a little before bed every night to help me fall asleep instead of going over my to-do list for tomorrow. Three books this semester and I’m happy. Right now I’m reading Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab.⁠06 My favorite modern author
2. Blog four times a month??? My reasoning is that if I can already call my mom once a week with life updates, then there has to be at least something to share, even if boring/tedious/crash-out core.
3. Exercise. I hate it. It makes me feel bad about myself. I hate gym culture. I hate that everything is now protein-supplemented when most Americans already get way above the recommended amount of protein. Nonetheless, would I rather feel semi-bad about myself for an hour a day or fall and break a hip at 60?
4. Budget. Now that I switched from Maseeh to East Campus for housing, I’m not on a meal plan and have to consistently buy groceries and cook for myself. My goal is to spend no more than ~$500/month on food while also not subjecting myself to Instant Noodles every night.
5. Get cool winter clothes. I’m thinking like trench coat and scarf, but that might be very last year. I am definitely far from a fashionista, and have largely not cared about clothes my entire life. And while I still don’t care, I do notice that waking up and putting on an adult outfit makes me feel more productive and I’m less likely to crawl into bed in the middle of the day.
6. Find something new. I feel like my goals are always me telling myself to increase the amount of me doing things I already do/know I should. Maybe there’s a reason I’m not doing them. Maybe a new hobby is waiting for me that could incite a passion for leisurely activities that don’t make me feel guilty for not studying. I want to do anything new to any extent. New club. New recipe. New daily habit. Even a new cool like trinket or gadget for my room I could show people. Something completely new to get me excited.

A part of me feels like this is a huge jinx, and this will become something I never live up to, how in a couple weeks I’ll post about how hosed and stressed I am, and in a few years when a random person does an inevitable blogger deep-dive, this will be a post they stumble upon and then see I didn’t post for months or read at all etc. etc. But just like 10.10, only time will tell!

Happy fall semester!🍁