i will miss learning and dressing up everyday by Kidist A. '22
happy last first week of classes to me and seniors of the world
On the morning of the second day of classes, I got a newsletter email from CAST with a video that featured past cross-disciplinary classes. It tanked my mood for the day. These classes were exactly aligned with my interests, combining fashion with technology, cultural studies with art. I wanted nothing more than to go back in time and take those classes. I spent the rest of that day complaining to anyone around me.
When I met with my advisor to approve my classes last week, I had 60 units of classes on my pre-registration. I only need to take three classes–biology, a writing class, and a thesis prep class. “I understand the ‘buffet’ is closing,” my advisor said and emphasized that it would be in my best interest to reduce my workload, especially in my last semester. The next day my friend would tell me about another class on computational art that took everything in me not to add to my schedule.
Above all else, I love learning. I have taken so many cool and interesting classes both within and outside my major that have truly impacted and shaped me. I’ll miss so much being a student whose sole responsibility is to learn. To find answers to the endless amount of questions I have about this world. To be given free resources to experiment and prototype and pursue almost any project only bound by my own limitations. Looking back, I wish I took advantage of the resources better. Though to be fair to me, MIT doesn’t do the best job advertising the wealth of its resources, and the pandemic rendered most of them inaccessible for almost two years anyways. But alas, reason doesn’t always diminish regret.
On the morning of the second day of classes, I woke up two hours before my first class so I could have enough time to calmly get ready.01 </span>I spent the last week of IAP in LA and got back just the day before the first day of classes. I found myself unable to sleep until past 3 am and woke up only five hours later for my 9 am class on the first day of classes. I was beyond tired the whole day. I’m too old to not get eight hours of sleep. But, it helped fixed my sleep schedule, at least for now, before classes ramp up and ruin it once more. When I’m not sleep-deprived, doing this is one of my favorite parts of the day. If I have time, I’ll make my tea and breakfast and eat them while watching an episode of a show.02 right now it's Criminal Minds, which I've already seen years ago but I'm rewatching. This year I also watched Desperate Housewives, Fringe, and a few other shows. Then, I’ll put on some music03 Beyonce and SZA on rotation with a little bit of Ice Spice here and there and start getting ready. The whole process takes maybe twenty minutes at most, but it’s so essential in helping me maintain my creative spirit at MIT. Figuring out what to wear is a chance to start my day with play. I can play with textures, colors, silhouettes, layers. Selecting which jacket to pair with which earrings becomes an exercise in color theory or proportions. It’s a chance to experiment, to reflect how I see myself to those who see me.
In high school, I remember reading about Zuckerberg’s choice to wear the same type of shirt every day so as to minimize decision fatigue. Frankly, I never understood this, even in high school when I only wore the same few shirts and jeans in rotation. Is the decision of what to wear that much of a burden to cause decision fatigue? I can imagine this is the case for lots of people for many different reasons, but he has all the money in the world to afford to outsource that decision to a stylist who can build the ultimate wardrobe.04 maybe that's the flex. I don't care, and I'll still be richer tomorrow. but lowkey that's fashion icon behavior. read: thedailybeast.com/mark-zuckerberg-in-the-social-network-fashion-icon Sometimes I wonder if that choice communicates something else: I’m too busy or too intelligent or too focused to care about fashion or the superficial. If you care too much about what you look like, what does that say about you? Are you shallow? Obtuse?
Work attire would come up in a few coffee chats I’d have with engineers during my various tech internships. From the conversations and my own observations, I gathered that for women at least there was this game of putting in enough effort to look more presentable but ensuring that it looked effortless. Only my first summer internship during my freshman year was in person, so I didn’t really have to play that game. And even if I did, it would only be in the summers. But as graduation and my entry into the full-time job market approaches, I find myself beginning to preemptively mourn the loss of my little morning dress-up party routine.
So maybe it hasn’t been a completely happy first week of classes. But God I’m so happy to be at the finish line.
- "I spent the last week of IAP in LA and got back just the day before the first day of classes. I found myself unable to sleep until past 3 am and woke up only five hours later for my 9 am class on the first day of classes. I was beyond tired the whole day. I’m too old to not get eight hours of sleep. But, it helped fixed my sleep schedule, at least for now, before classes ramp up and ruin it once more. back to text ↑
- "right now it's Criminal Minds, which I've already seen years ago but I'm rewatching. This year I also watched Desperate Housewives, Fringe, and a few other shows. back to text ↑
- "Beyonce and SZA on rotation with a little bit of Ice Spice here and there back to text ↑
- "maybe that's the flex. I don't care, and I'll still be richer tomorrow. but lowkey that's fashion icon behavior. read: thedailybeast.com/mark-zuckerberg-in-the-social-network-fashion-icon back to text ↑