Meant to Be by Kirsten L. '15

These first 3 weeks at MIT can best described as a whirlwind of new faces, parties, spontaneous fun activities, late-night chats, pset-induced stress (yes, already), and of course free food. Already, many notable events have happened in my life. I experienced the best FPOP ever aka DPD, travelled to all parts of Boston in a mere 4 hours, had fun at REX events, survived a hurricane, visited too many club booths at the activities midway, enjoyed a free steak and lobster dinner (yes, the free food around here isn’t limited to pizza), spent a night in the New England Aquarium, and finished my first MIT pset.

As you can imagine, it’s been hard to devote my precious minutes to blogging merely because I’m at MIT and there are ALWAYS amazing things happening on campus. Nevertheless, my love for the blogs and the people who read the blogs brings me here to my computer on a beautiful afternoon.

Last Friday marked the end of my first full week of classes at MIT. Despite the fact that I’ve only been here for a couple days, these are general things that I have noticed about MIT and myself.

1. Let’s start off with a quick biology question:Q: What’s the best way to entice an MIT student to go do something?
   A: Free food!

   Almost every one of the 100s of emails advertising activities at MIT have mentioned free food (this makes freshmen 15 unavoidable…). Anyways the point is that I feel that at almost any time at MIT on campus, there is free food lurking about somewhere.

2. I think in numbers.
   The other day, I called one of my friends back home. This is how our conversation went down:Friend: What classes are you taking?
   Me: 7.012, 8.01, 18.02, 3.986
   -Awkward Silence-
   Me: Oh right… that makes no sense to you…

   I’ve realized that those numbers which made no sense to me a mere 2 weeks ago have now officially been internalized. They grow on you. (For those of you curious, in order my classes are: Intro Biology, Physics I: Classical Mechanics, Calc II, and Intro to Archaeology)

3. Psets are like siblings. You love them because you know they’ll be helpful to you one day in the future, but you hate them because you have to put up with them until they become useful. Haha. Just kidding. I have a younger brother that I love dearly (:
   But really… MIT PSETS ARE HARD. Helpful, but HARD. It’s absolutely true that they encourage collaboration here via psets.
4. The people here are shocking. In a good way.
   Every person that I’ve met here has done some amazing things or is incredibly talented in some spectacular way. Together, we make up a diverse class which makes for an amazing culture of intellectual stimulation and enlightenment. I’m always learning new things from other classmates, and they’re so happy to teach others about their hobbies/passions.
5. Lastly, the friends you make here make every stressful moment worth it.
   Whenever you’re feeling stressed about the millions of things that you have due tomorrow, there are ALWAYS people there to help you feel better. There are those friends who are in the same boat with you and spend hours crammed in your tiny room trying to solve the hard problems together and occasionally doing something really awkward that causes everyone to laugh so hard they can’t stop laughing. Then there are those geniuses (who I liken to Superman and Wonder Women) who, having already finished all their psets for this week are waiting for the newest psets to come out, come in your hour of distress to save the day! Lastly, there are your dormmates who will randomly decide to bust into your room and drag you out to go play wiffle ball in the halls
   These are the moments when I know I was meant to be here.

Finding your fit, as Connie talked about, is about finding where you feel comfortable because you relate to others around you or aspire to become like those around you. Every day I’ve been at MIT so far, I’ve had both those feelings. I know MIT is home, a place where I belong.
After all… some things are meant to be.