a semester’s shenanigans by Ankita D. '23

the time is nigh for a “what is ankita doing this semester?!?!” post because honestly, i stare at a full Google Calendar every day, half reassuring myself that i’m Doing Things and half stressing myself out even more, but sometimes i don’t even know where my time goes. i feel like everything happens so fast⁠01 except lecture and that my days are a constant stream of checkboxes on my To-Do list; i’m putting out fire after fire⁠02 half-assed hosing perhaps? and maybe having an incredible experience here and there, but it’s being swept away by my next assignment before i even have the chance to reflect on it.

…i’m having a great time though!

(for now)

anyway, here’s what’s been c o n s u m i n g⁠03 take this with a grain of salt...my effort level under P/NR is admittedly quite low my days for the past couple weeks

Classes:

8.01 (Classical Mechanics) — honestly, not a fan. it’s a TEAL class and isn’t as engaging as i expected, so lecture is just a 2-hour void :/ and i don’t know what’s going on half the time but i pull everything together the day the pset is due (ish) and then rinse and repeat!! i find it hard to stay engaged since lecture is punctuated with problem-solving at the whiteboards, most of which i feel unprepared for. 

6.0001 (Intro to Computer Science Programming in Python) — real talk. aside from AP Computer Science, i didn’t do any coding in high school—partly because i thought i was too late to the game to get good at it, and partly because i just didn’t see its appeal. math was more of my thing; solving math problems, which most of the time is trying random shit until it works, is SUPER fun. but *gasp* it turns out coding also entails solving problems by trying random shit until it works! i genuinely enjoy doing my coding psets (!!) and the validation i get when the tester hits me with a THICC 5/5 cannot be described in words 😩

(lol MIT is not a bad place to discover that you don’t mind coding)

3.091 (Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry) — i won’t lie to yall…i’ve put very little effort into this class and since the last time i took chem was 8th grade…oof. but i’m getting my shit together!! i promise!!!

21G.030 (Introduction to East Asian Cultures: From Zen to K-Pop) — my HASS class! i’m taking it because 1, it sounded fun, and 2, it contributes to my Chinese minor. i did a lot of East Asian history/culture programs⁠04 check out the Reischauer, China, and Sejong Scholars programs! in high school so expanding my knowledge/learning about certain topics from different perspectives is pretty awesome. also, we do museum trips, which i’ll definitely talk about in future posts

2.A16 (Founder’s Journey) — a freshman seminar; we go to cool places like Google and MIT Open Learning and learn from some amazing people. it’s a great environment to meet entrepreneurially-minded peers and to explore entrepreneurship in varying contexts.

15.000 (Explorations in Management) — my only discovery subject this semester, in which we learn about what’s taught at Sloan and how it’s applied to real-world problems. also, we get free dinner before every session :)))

Activities:

Mocha Moves — one of MIT’s main hip hop teams! we have practice six hours a week⁠05 from 9-11 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 4-6 on Saturdays — high school is quaking and i love every minute of it. initially, its rigor was off-putting since my prior experience with dance consisted of dancing alone in my room in 30-second spurts whenever i wanted, but now i’ve come to really enjoy it. i can’t wait for our first performance! 

Dance Troupe — the big boi of dance at MIT. it has lots of dances for people at every level, which is really freaking awesome. i’m on the advanced hip hop one and it’s a great time! it’s also only an hour-long commitment a week, yay

Sloan Business Club — one of the more established undergrad business organizations on campus. it’s split into three initiatives—finance, consulting, and entrepreneurship—and we learn about each through the Board Education Program (BEP) in our first participating semester. my favorite part of being in SBC is going on coffee chats with members; they range from learning about upperclassmen’s professional experiences to straight-up spilling tea for an hour. it’s great.

as i mentioned in this post, i’m grappling with the feeling that there are so many activities out there that i could be doing, but i’m also happy that i can focus all my energy into a few endeavors instead of spreading myself out doing a lot of things i only kind of care about (e.g. i dropped a UROP because i wasn’t SUPER excited about it, which was a damn good decision)

anyway, that’s pretty much it so

yee yee