Non-Stop by Ankita D. '23

A⁠01 not gonna lie i pondered just...inserting all the lyrics to non-stop from hamilton in this post. nothing else just that few days ago, my Google Calendar returned to its pre-exile state, aka the cluttered, multicolored, clusterfuck it was like before we were kicked off campus in March. With all the meetings that were scheduled, I had almost no space between hour blocks. It was shocking, honestly.

Here’s what I did!

11:30-12

I met with my supervisor for the Japanese tutoring organization I’m a part of to discuss my lessons for a student. I’m trying to prepare him for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which is held at MIT in December, so we talked about options for making classes more intensive and test-prep-oriented.

12 – 1

I had a meeting with my UROP advisor to talk about some work I’d done during the week. I presented my findings to her and worked with her to figure out the next steps for our project.

1-2

I Zoomed some friends from my living community to look for apartments. MIT recently announced that only seniors will be on campus in fall, so we’re in the middle of hunting for a place to live in the Cambridge area. It’s really stressful…

2-2:30

I interviewed for a position with a startup that I found through MIT’s Summer Startup Matchup, hosted by the Innovation Initiative. I, uh…got the job immediately?? I start on Monday! It’s pretty exciting—I’ll be working with the company until the end of summer with the potential to continue in fall.

2:30-3:00

I had a biweekly check-in for my communications job with the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL). My supervisor and I talked about some of the work I’d done today and discussed what my outlook for the next week will be.

3-3:30

I had an advising appointment with the Director of Sloan to talk about my options for fall. I was thinking of light loading,⁠02 aka taking < 36 units but decided that I’d rather take on a normal courseload so I’m not stressed about finishing my intended double major + minor later.

3:30-4

A break that I used to ~stressfully~ stalk the freshly-released Fall Course Catalog and to Course Road my remaining three years at MIT.

Yeah, a break they said.

4-5

I have a meeting for my job. I don’t have much to say, so I kind of just sit there for an hour. uwu

5-6

Japanese tutoring! I tutor every week and really enjoy it. It’s an easy and fun way to make some money on the side of my UROP/job. It also is a great means of keeping in touch with the language since I no longer self-study it.

6-7

I meet with various representatives of Dormcon⁠03 dorm committee to plan out how we’re going to cultivate community for incoming freshmen while we’re all virtual. It’s an important meeting for me since my dorm, Burton Conner, is closing for renovations soon, and I want to help maintain the continuity of our culture while the dorm is offline. Read more here…

7-10

Free time!! Thank god!!!!

10-11

The Mocha Moves⁠04 my dance team. one of the two main hip hop groups at MIT captains meet to talk about our plan for fall. We discussed staying together while we’re all scattered across the country, potential auditions for frosh/new upperclassmen members, and a fall virtual showcase. We also brought up a recent MIT-wide dance community meeting about racism and talked about how we’re going to take action to stop using harmful words like “urban” that over-generalize a plethora of dance styles.

Takeaways from today:

• It may be summer, but MIT commitments tend to outweigh work ones…
• It’s refreshing to see how much people care about building and maintaining community while we’re all virtual this fall. I’ve said this countless times, but I’m really appreciative of MIT’s strong student culture.
• Even the softest chairs start to hurt after nine continuous hours of sitting in them. Read: I need to exercise more.
• Course Road will chew you up and spit you out. Try your hardest to maintain your sanity whenever you use it. Try.
• I like back-to-back meetings, even if I try to convince myself otherwise.