index.md (7315B)
1 +++ 2 title = "Stanford Quarterly Reflection (Y1Q1)" 3 date = 2024-01-09 4 +++ 5 6 Life changes slowly and then all at once. I started at Stanford 7 University on September 19th, 2023, an "all at once" day that began the 8 rest of my life. It is no small thing to leave the home you've known all 9 your life for a place as strange as Stanford. I am profoundly grateful 10 for the opportunity to do so and for the people who have made that 11 possible. It turns out to be a wonderful kind of strange. 12 13 <!-- more --> 14 15 This past quarter felt like being thrown onto a bucking horse, breaking 16 it, and immediately turning it toward the racetrack and joining a heat 17 that was already underway.[^1] It was immediately fun. 18 19 ### General Philosophizing on the Subject of People 20 People are supremely important. Having people you care about to eat with 21 when the evening comes—this one thing can make anywhere feel like home. 22 This is not a profound realization, but it is one that I have come to 23 through my time here. 24 25 I have been extremely lucky to be joined at Stanford by one of my best 26 friends from high school. It's completely cheating: I am certain that 27 the transition would have been far more difficult on my own. To leave 28 home and be totally alone is an experience I still have not had: when I 29 moved to Stanford I had Vivek. 30 31 I have been further showered with folks who I am grateful for, new 32 friends that—as anyone who has gone off to college will tell you—I 33 already feel like I've known all my life. What I most want to say is 34 this: when I went off to college, it was my most sincere hope that I 35 would meet remarkable people. I have found this sort of person at 36 Stanford in abundance, and nowhere more than with you, my friends. 37 38 Thank you Jack, for welcoming me into your home—and giving me a potato 39 for my shelf. Thank you Josh, for debating with me the linguistic 40 intricacies of Hebrew curse words. Thank you Daniel, Riya, and Amalia, 41 for hanging out with me in far-flung cities; it's remarkable to land 42 somewhere strange and have friends there to welcome you. And thank you 43 Kelly, for introducing me to [Corner], and more importantly being 44 everything for everyone in difficult times. 45 46 And to all those with whom I shared food, ran around in the cold, stayed 47 up into the wee hours of the night, and woke up for in the early morning 48 to go lift; it's been a lifetime these few short months and I am amazed 49 I have been able to spend it with you. 50 51 ### Specific Commentary on the Subject of Academics 52 I took six classes, which I found after a confused two-week sprint where 53 I picked up and quickly dropped, among others, a three-hour long 54 comparative literature class.[^2] My schedule eventually settled into 55 the following: 56 57 1. CS 106B: Programming Abstractions 58 2. ARABLANG 1A: Accelerated First Year Arabic 59 3. HISTORY 81B: Contemporary Middle East 60 4. CS 7: Personal Finance for Engineers 61 5. PHYSICS 59: Frontiers of Physics Research 62 6. ECON 3: Big Ideas Lecture Series 63 64 I loved this schedule, and am quite lucky to have stumbled into it. 65 Sean, my 106B professor, is wonderful and an endless well of millennial, 66 self-deprecating positive energy. I hope nothing ever stays that spirit. 67 My Arabic professor Khaled has an incredible tendency to launch off on 68 half-hour long tangents in the middle of a lesson. It was in his class 69 that I saw my name for the first time: 70 71  72 73 We had already learned the alphabet when Khaled used my name as an 74 example. I looked up at the chalkboard in amazement.[^3] When did I 75 first see my name in English or Hebrew? This time, I snapped a picture. 76 77 HISTORY 81B fell into the trap of most Middle Eastern history courses: 78 it taught the same old Arab-centric narrative, depriving all characters 79 of agency and giving the state of the region an air of inevitability. I 80 took it to hang out with Vedant and Hassan—which I did! Our post-class 81 coffee routine caused me to be late to Arabic on many an occasion. I 82 also enjoyed our final project, which [I published here][war-of-return] 83 as stylistic practice for an eventual submission to the ACX book review 84 contest.[^4] 85 86 The final three classes were all speaker series. Whenever I tell this to 87 upperclassmen, they universally respond with a shoulder pat and a 88 wistful gaze as they reflect back on when they were young and naive and 89 took speaker series. I hope I never come to adopt this position: I think 90 they're the greatest. In PHYSICS 59 I heard the sound of a single atom 91 moving. CS 7 filled a huge gap in my knowledge and helped me 92 contextualize my finances.[^5] And ECON 3 is one of those classes that 93 can only exist with the unique resources found here. 94 95 ### Other Rattlings of the Mind 96 The observation of change is a difficult thing. I find it almost 97 impossible to embody the version of myself that was once living so 98 differently. 99 100 The blank slate of college is a canvas for personal change. I'm trying 101 to use it to live as intentionally as possible.[^6] When you are in 102 control of all the facets of your life, why not design it? 103 104 The amount of distinct events that occur each day in my life on this 105 campus is incredible. Perhaps one of the things I appreciate most about 106 Stanford is this compression of time and space. There are so many people 107 doing so many things here, that each day doesn't truly feel complete 108 until something unique and memorable has occurred. Last night, for 109 example, I spontaneously dropped in on a class in the law school a 110 friend of mine is taking that just so happens to be taught by the father 111 of a high school friend.[^7] How glorious! 112 113 ### Looking Forward 114 The second quarter is already upon us. This time around there will be a 115 lot more writing of papers. And yet, I am sure it will be—as this last 116 quarter has been—genuinely exceptional. 117 118 עם ישראל חי 119 120 --- 121 122 [^1]: I have never done anything remotely like this. It is a metaphor. 123 Your horse-wrangling mileage may vary. 124 125 [^2]: *COMPLIT 214: Shipwrecks and Backlands*, mostly 126 inspired by an excellent course on surreal Latin American literature in 127 high school; thalassic Iberian literature seemed like a good next step. 128 Ultimately, I thought the discussion format combined with the extended 129 duration made it not a good fit for what I would like to do at Stanford. 130 I was also briefly in *SYMSYS 1: Minds and Machines*, but was 131 told that I would receive several zeroes on the first week's work and my 132 grade would suffer. I believe that's not how the shopping period is 133 supposed to work, so I dropped out in search of classes excited to have 134 me. 135 136 [^3]: I know, right? Chalkboard! I'd never really seen one of those 137 before. Amusing that in the middle of Silicon Valley, the chalkboard is 138 alive and well in the depths of Main Quad. 139 140 [^4]: *War of Return* was not assigned specifically, we were just tasked 141 with writing a book review. The review I will eventually submit to the 142 ACX contest will likely have decreased usage of "Ibid." 143 144 [^5]: Let it also be known that the lecturer, Adam Nash, is extremely 145 cool, has nice hair, and writes [a blog of his own][nash-blog]. 146 147 [^6]: Sleep well, be jacked. 148 149 [^7]: Because, it seems, taking law school classes as an undergraduate 150 freshman is something you can do. If you're insane. 151 152 [corner]: https://www.corner.inc/clouds 153 [war-of-return]: @/reading/war-of-return/index.md 154 [nash-blog]: https://adamnash.blog