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MIT student blogger Shannon M. '12

Things that are hard. by Shannon M. '12

Though not as hard as this.

Hence the not-having-written-anything-yet.

So hi, my name’s Shannon. I’m from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Furniture Capital of the World and proud birthplace of both the Holland Tulip Time Festival and the Christian Reformed Church (though I was technically born in Detroit, the not-so-proud hometown of Kwame Kilpatrick… yeah). I enjoy long walks on the beach, though only on the hard sand because I get tired easily on the soft stuff. If I were a Crayola crayon, I would totally be Dandelion- it’s clearly the best color in the box. From the ages of 3-10, my life goal was to be quarterback for the Detroit Lions, though I was eventually was forced to give this up and decided that being an astrophysicist was an acceptable alternative. Two of my favorite times are 10:23 and 10:24, particularly because they come one right after another.

I happen to be a bit of a nerd.

I know almost the entire script of The Lion King, which is by far my favorite Disney movie of all time- I will not budge on this point. I make some ridiculously good chocolate chip cookies, once walked from Harvard to MIT entirely barefoot due to a massive blister, and have a tendency to laugh when people get really mad at me. I’ve wanted to go to MIT since middle school, and now that I’m here I practically have to pinch myself when I wake up in the morning because I can hardly believe that I’m at this school. That, and I have trouble waking up to alarms.

So this blog is for those of you who love this school already and for those of you who don’t (though I suppose that covers everyone). With the ridiculousness that tends to be the story of my life, though, the ride should at least be entertaining.

*”Vermonster– A monster of a sundae – 20 scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, banana, cookies, brownies, and all of your favorite toppings.” In English: don’t try this at home, kids.

26 responses to “Things that are hard.”

  1. Ehsan says:

    W00T!

    I wanna Vermonster!!!

  2. Judy '12 says:

    Dandelion? Psh. Radioactive orangeDandelion? Psh. Radioactive orange<3

  3. Marie says:

    Yay Shannon! smile omigosh those vermonsters were crazy lol

  4. Vaibhav says:

    OMG!! – 20 scoops!! – 18 more than I would handle in a normal sitting!
    Nice 1st entry though…

  5. donaldGuy says:

    WHY WOULD YOU LINK TO THE IMPOSSIBLE QUIZ?!!? I just lost an hour of my life and I only got to number #82 (with a cheat sheet!!)

    *sigh*

  6. Aaah, the impossible quiz.
    I love that game. My friends and I beat it once, but apparently it was all muscle memory because now I can’t get past like, 10.

  7. Shannon says:

    In response to Kelly’s mentioning that you “love that game”:

    I just lost the game.

  8. Banerjee says:

    FIRST!!!!

    Nice post. I wish some day I get to experience what its like to finally arrive at the school I’ve been dreaming of. Just like you did.

    Off topic: I need a Vermonster right now.

  9. Oy…you know I’ve been reading these blogs too long when I see “10:24” and think “power of two” and a second later think “Sam’s blog”. XD

    Anyway, it’s great to finally hear from you, Shannon! smile

    Actually, it’s great to see all of the new bloggers…it just took mention of 1024 to pull me out of lurk mode. :D

  10. Helen says:

    I’ve never seen a Vermonster before (we don’t have B&J in Australia) so I’m gonna have to try one when I get to MIT!

    Cool first blog.
    And the header picture looks great.

  11. Steph '12 says:

    Haha I love how “once I walked to Harvard barefoot” was actually like, 3 days ago.

    Oh, and for each time you make me lose the game through your blog, I’m going to wear my Scioly shirt for an entire day and point to it every five minutes. Not even kidding.

  12. Welcome I guess…

    “I happen to be a bit of a nerd.”
    who will notice, your at MIT?
    Testing html here.

    Waking up to alarms is hard for me too. Particularly because of my internet addiction which only allows 3.5 hours of sleep some days. Theorycrafting games I don’t play -_-
    Seriously, How do you MIT students do that everyday? Get two alarms, then set them 2 minutes from each other. I use my watch alarm. Don’t think about getting up, just do it. This is the only thing that works 99% of the time if you get 6 hours of sleep for most people. The % drops after than.

  13. that**
    “Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)”
    oh

  14. Awwww, I just lost the game too. I made it a whole 12 hours!

  15. John says:

    yay grand rapids! and thanks Shannon and Kelly, i just lost the game as well. I had been winning for about 2 weeks…

  16. Anonymous says:

    “and have a tendency to laugh when people get really mad at me.”

    how’s that working out wink

  17. Robin '12 says:

    AWWWW SHANNON!!!!!!!!
    Wow I’m in two out of five hahahaha raspberry
    Congrats on your first blog entry, roomie!!!
    I love you!!!!!

  18. Chris '12 says:

    that impossible test is devouring all my time.

  19. Ashwath says:

    I’m sick and tired of level 56 – Can’t get beyond that …

  20. Reena says:

    N-n-no. No way.
    Dandelion is *my* favorite crayon.
    *steals crayon* raspberry

  21. Shamarah says:

    Hi Shannon, it’s Shamarah! :p
    Since I never see you I guess this’ll be our only mode of communcation. BTW, aww you put up pictures of your friendsies. Nice touch! Tell Sam and or Diana I said hello plzthx.

    peace,
    Sham

  22. Mikey says:

    1. Omg I just spent an hour and a half on the impossible quiz and i’m not even halfway done. evil.

    2. Dandelion? More like Cerulean. 1. Omg I just spent an hour and a half on the impossible quiz and i’m not even halfway done. evil.

    2. Dandelion? More like Cerulean. <3 that crayon.

    3. I’m terrible at waking up to alarms. My trick when I was living in Burton-Conner when I was sleeping on a top bunk was to put the alarm clock on the other side of the room on the top shelf. Every day I would wake up, jump down, walk across the room, reach up, hit snooze, walk back across, climb into bed, and go back to sleep. Rinse and repeat until I’d just shut off the thing. After a while I decided to stop torturing my suitemates with my alarm so I’d just forget setting an alarm and would skip class to sleep. (This was usually because I would be awake until 7am playing games like THE IMPOSSIBLE QUIZ.)

    /end ramble that contains no useful information, but much crusty nostalgia

  23. Reena says:

    Mikey, Dandelion dominates cerulean hands-down. :D

  24. Ivana '12 says:

    Wow, I can’t remember what question I got to when I last played that impossible quiz. Glad to see you start blogging!

  25. Jeanine says:

    I tried the problem Shannon… But I don’t remember how all the masses are connected, let me know, so I can see if I was right!

    Nice blog smile “Coach”

  26. YOUR BIG says:

    I KNOW WHO YOUR BIG IS!!
    and yes, I’m taking over every communication medium you know for annoyance purposes.