Reflections and Images

Although my first semester of college was fine overall, there were certain things that I wished I could have done better. I think it is good that I notice these problems earlier instead of waiting till the last year of college and realizing how problematic certain things are in my life.  1. Exercise  I exercised last semester by signing up for a quarter-long PE class and playing tennis recreationally once a week, but this probably amounted to 2.5 hours a week, which isn't a lot. After the PE class ended, that number decreased even more. By not exercising, I was more sluggish and not that energetic. This behavior indirectly made me less conscious of my dietary choices.  It is a pity that I didn't consider running along the magnificent Charles River right next to my dorm. I came up with lots of excuses to not run since I associated running with discomfort and boredom. If I were to go back in time, I would tell my past self to play some podcasts or music as a form of enterta...

 A month ago, I  decided to revisit some documents that I didn't look at for a long time because I thought they would help me with my memoir. When I read poems I wrote for my eighth grade and ninth grade English poetry unit, I couldn't believe that I experienced so much angst during that time. I also cringed while reading them because I had a short phase during my teenage years thinking that I could write poetry as long as I formatted my thoughts into verses. I titled the Google document as Just My Thoughts- Poems and shared it with my close friend for them to contribute their poems.  I kind of ignored that period because nothing much eventful happened and I don't like reminding myself all the time that I struggled socially and emotionally.  Here are some sad poems that I wrote for eighth-grade English:  I wish...  I wish I can have more self-confidence. I wish I can be honest about my feelings.  I wish I can have a more meaningful life.  I wish I...

Note: this is a very long post and some parts may sound tangential.  Before going to bed early because of a morning flight, I spent my New Year's Eve finishing my last book of the year: Good Economics for Hard Times . Although I barely understood what was happening half of the time due to my lack of economics knowledge, I appreciated the thorough analysis of various economic problems that are relevant in today's society.  When I closed the book, I thought of my past self a year ago. That self would not believe that I managed to read 55 books in one year.* I always liked reading ever since a kid, though I thought of reading a book a week to be an unfeasible goal, given that there was always some commitment I had. But there was always this cognitive dissonance in my brain because I would always think about how one of my favorite YouTubers, John Fish, successfully read 55 books in a year. For some context, John Fish is a college YouTuber who studies at Harvard and his channel dis...