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parent 2d49c9440cfc4a44fe1cc0cce66db332627c77e1
Author: FIGBERT <figbert@figbert.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2024 14:45:29 -0800
Add Stanford Quarterly Reflection Y1Q1
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+title = "Stanford Quarterly Reflection (Y1Q1)"
+date = 2024-01-09
++++
+
+Life changes slowly and then all at once. I started at Stanford
+University on September 19th, 2023, an "all at once" day that began the
+rest of my life. It is no small thing to leave the home you've known all
+your life for a place as strange as Stanford. I am profoundly grateful
+for the opportunity to do so and for the people who have made that
+possible. It turns out to be a wonderful kind of strange.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+This past quarter felt like being thrown onto a bucking horse, breaking
+it, and immediately turning it toward the racetrack and joining a heat
+that was already underway.[^1] It was immediately fun.
+
+### General Philosophizing on the Subject of People
+People are supremely important. Having people you care about to eat with
+when the evening comes—this one thing can make anywhere feel like home.
+This is not a profound realization, but it is one that I have come to
+through my time here.
+
+I have been extremely lucky to be joined at Stanford by one of my best
+friends from high school. It's completely cheating: I am certain that
+the transition would have been far more difficult on my own. To leave
+home and be totally alone is an experience I still have not had: when I
+moved to Stanford I had Vivek.
+
+I have been further showered with folks who I am grateful for, new
+friends that—as anyone who has gone off to college will tell you—I
+already feel like I've known all my life. What I most want to say is
+this: when I went off to college, it was my most sincere hope that I
+would meet remarkable people. I have found this sort of person at
+Stanford in abundance, and nowhere more than with you, my friends.
+
+Thank you Jack, for welcoming me into your home—and giving me a potato
+for my shelf. Thank you Josh, for debating with me the linguistic
+intricacies of Hebrew curse words. Thank you Daniel, Riya, and Amalia,
+for hanging out with me in far-flung cities; it's remarkable to land
+somewhere strange and have friends there to welcome you. And thank you
+Kelly, for introducing me to [Corner], and more importantly being
+everything for everyone in difficult times.
+
+And to all those with whom I shared food, ran around in the cold, stayed
+up into the wee hours of the night, and woke up for in the early morning
+to go lift; it's been a lifetime these few short months and I am amazed
+I have been able to spend it with you.
+
+### Specific Commentary on the Subject of Academics
+I took six classes, which I found after a confused two-week sprint where
+I picked up and quickly dropped, among others, a three-hour long
+comparative literature class.[^2] My schedule eventually settled into
+the following:
+
+1. CS 106B: Programming Abstractions
+2. ARABLANG 1A: Accelerated First Year Arabic
+3. HISTORY 81B: Contemporary Middle East
+4. CS 7: Personal Finance for Engineers
+5. PHYSICS 59: Frontiers of Physics Research
+6. ECON 3: Big Ideas Lecture Series
+
+I loved this schedule, and am quite lucky to have stumbled into it.
+Sean, my 106B professor, is wonderful and an endless well of millennial,
+self-deprecating positive energy. I hope nothing ever stays that spirit.
+My Arabic professor Khaled has an incredible tendency to launch off on
+half-hour long tangents in the middle of a lesson. It was in his class
+that I saw my name for the first time:
+
+
+
+We had already learned the alphabet when Khaled used my name as an
+example. I looked up at the chalkboard in amazement.[^3] When did I
+first see my name in English or Hebrew? This time, I snapped a picture.
+
+HISTORY 81B fell into the trap of most Middle Eastern history courses:
+it taught the same old Arab-centric narrative, depriving all characters
+of agency and giving the state of the region an air of inevitability. I
+took it to hang out with Vedant and Hassan—which I did! Our post-class
+coffee routine caused me to be late to Arabic on many an occasion. I
+also enjoyed our final project, which [I published here][war-of-return]
+as stylistic practice for an eventual submission to the ACX book review
+contest.[^4]
+
+The final three classes were all speaker series. Whenever I tell this to
+upperclassmen, they universally respond with a shoulder pat and a
+wistful gaze as they reflect back on when they were young and naive and
+took speaker series. I hope I never come to adopt this position: I think
+they're the greatest. In PHYSICS 59 I heard the sound of a single atom
+moving. CS 7 filled a huge gap in my knowledge and helped me
+contextualize my finances.[^5] And ECON 3 is one of those classes that
+can only exist with the unique resources found here.
+
+### Other Rattlings of the Mind
+The observation of change is a difficult thing. I find it almost
+impossible to embody the version of myself that was once living so
+differently.
+
+The blank slate of college is a canvas for personal change. I'm trying
+to use it to live as intentionally as possible.[^6] When you are in
+control of all the facets of your life, why not design it?
+
+The amount of distinct events that occur each day in my life on this
+campus is incredible. Perhaps one of the things I appreciate most about
+Stanford is this compression of time and space. There are so many people
+doing so many things here, that each day doesn't truly feel complete
+until something unique and memorable has occurred. Last night, for
+example, I spontaneously dropped in on a class in the law school a
+friend of mine is taking that just so happens to be taught by the father
+of a high school friend.[^7] How glorious!
+
+### Looking Forward
+The second quarter is already upon us. This time around there will be a
+lot more writing of papers. And yet, I am sure it will be—as this last
+quarter has been—genuinely exceptional.
+
+עם ישראל חי
+
+---
+
+[^1]: I have never done anything remotely like this. It is a metaphor.
+Your horse-wrangling mileage may vary.
+
+[^2]: *COMPLIT 214: Shipwrecks and Backlands*, mostly
+inspired by an excellent course on surreal Latin American literature in
+high school; thalassic Iberian literature seemed like a good next step.
+Ultimately, I thought the discussion format combined with the extended
+duration made it not a good fit for what I would like to do at Stanford.
+I was also briefly in *SYMSYS 1: Minds and Machines*, but was
+told that I would receive several zeroes on the first week's work and my
+grade would suffer. I believe that's not how the shopping period is
+supposed to work, so I dropped out in search of classes excited to have
+me.
+
+[^3]: I know, right? Chalkboard! I'd never really seen one of those
+before. Amusing that in the middle of Silicon Valley, the chalkboard is
+alive and well in the depths of Main Quad.
+
+[^4]: *War of Return* was not assigned specifically, we were just tasked
+with writing a book review. The review I will eventually submit to the
+ACX contest will likely have decreased usage of "Ibid."
+
+[^5]: Let it also be known that the lecturer, Adam Nash, is extremely
+cool, has nice hair, and writes [a blog of his own][nash-blog].
+
+[^6]: Sleep well, be jacked.
+
+[^7]: Because, it seems, taking law school classes as an undergraduate
+freshman is something you can do. If you're insane.
+
+[corner]: https://www.corner.inc/clouds
+[war-of-return]: @/reading/complete/war-of-return/index.md
+[nash-blog]: https://adamnash.blog
