Notes on the college experience

A semester of college, with classes five days a week, is simply too long (for me). I have ideas of things to make on a daily basis, but now have no time to actually create them, and frankly I’m the least busy I’ll be during all four years of this. How am I supposed to do this for four years, working for companies in the summers, & not go do my own thing? As interesting as my classes are, not being able to create things directly from my soul is stifling.

I do know incredibly smart college students who barely focus on the schoolwork & instead focus entirely on making things/developing outside school, & I really respect that. But personally, it just doesn’t make sense. I’m not going to college to please other people, I’m going because I think it makes sense for my life right now. There is no reason to spend many hours & a quarter million on an education you don’t focus on.

That said, this schedule was clearly optimized for those of us who want to put 100% into our academics & nothing else. Though academic work has significant merits, I cannot subsist merely off academic work. I need to truly engage in things I truly love, very directly, very frequently. I’ve been doing that since before I was a toddler—making “art” projects, knitting, coding, organizing—& I cannot stop now.

This was my bedroom as a young child:

I am sure finding a balance here is the key. I have intentions to start a club here at NYU, build various new projects, excel in my classes, take great care of my health, have a flourishing social life & career. It’s easy to get carried away in the vision of each of these pathways, but ultimately it’s the balance of all the elements that will lead to a happy/successful time here.