Fearless

Happy New Year errybody! I just got back last tonight from being in Houston this weekend and figured that a New Year's Eve post was a must. Some stuff about the weekend first. We visited the Johnson Space Center on Saturday and the Houston Museum of Natural Science yesterday. Then I visited my very special friend Howard in Pearland and was introduced to some of his super nice friends. The Butterfly Center at the museum was probably my favorite thing ever, other than seeing Howard of course. It's amazing how careful I have to be while writing this blog now because of certain people reading it. I would just hate to switch to a personal journal though because I've fallen in love with this format and love getting feedback from friends. Anyways, some photos. Well, they're all of butterflies because that was amazing.   I LOVE MY CAMERA. Normal digitals can't do this as well I think. Super zooooooooom! Yesterday my friend and I made a bet to moti...

I miss Duke. All week I've been wanting to write a post, but I've had no idea what to write about. Life at home is very relaxing, but also immensely boring. In the past week, I've watched more Christmas movies, watched some old Hindi movies with my parents, eaten a LOT of food, made a lasagna for my dad's friend from work's family who came over for dinner, made more food for our neighbors who came over for dinner another night, made even more food for our ex-realtor and now good friend who came over for dinner yet another night, visited San Antonio's Riverwalk, read some chapters of the book for Bio202, begun to outline chapters in the orgo textbook, and slept. It sounds like a lot more than it actually is.  I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas. I think that's the day we went to San Antonio. We don't really do Christmas all up in my house. We usually do some presents and stuff, but this year I figured my camera and laptop and college education...

So I've been home since Monday and my time at home so far can be summed up in 5 words: sleep, real food, Skype, and Christmas movies. I need to get out. Literally, I was so bored today that I started studying for orgo next semester. YOU THINK I'M KIDDING, BUT ALKYNES. I guess it's better to start getting prepared than to waste my time. Though that's really what break is for. But I'm really just not good at wasting time. Maybe I should meditate. Just sit outside with no technology and meditate. For an hour. I might do that tomorrow. Unless it's cold, then I might not. But yanno, Texas. For some reason I seem to have some of my deepest thoughts while I'm doing something else that requires my full attention, like reading orgo. I thought today about how much I control and repress some of the feelings and desires that I have and how that's probably the cause of the internal conflict that I have with my emotions and my logic. I told my friend one time t...

I'm at the Duke Hospital ER right now because my roommate's friend collapsed in her dorm and was brought here about 5 hours ago. 5 hours later we're still waiting in the lobby for her to go inside. Sigh... But while I was here waiting, I had an extremely humbling conversation with a man who was also waiting in the lobby. He had some sort of mental disorder I'm pretty sure because of his slurred speech and randomness of words and lack of social constraint. He was walking around talking to all of the people around saying random things to make them smile. He said to one old lady, "I just like to see people smile." A woman was holding her daughter of about 5 years and he said to the couple, ""Pretty baby. You must be a proud daddy to have her." He was sitting behind me and he said, "Excuse me, pretty young lady." I turned around because I was the only person in the waiting room young enough to be considered a "young lady." My ro...

Tonight I experienced for the first time one of the many wonderful things that nature has to offer: a beautiful starry sky and a spectacular meteor shower. By starry sky I don't mean the kind that you see when you look out from your window and the artificial light of civilization is too bright to see more than three-fourths of the stars up there. I mean the starry sky you see from a clearing in the middle of the forest off of the highway where no artificial lights are present for at least a mile in every direction. And so that's what we did in the Duke Forest. I did indeed almost freeze my toes off, but the feeling has returned to them and it feels super good to move them again! I sure hope I don't get sick tomorrow morning. Regardless, it was totes worth it. Stargazing is so amazing, but I just wish I knew more constellations. My camera doesn't do it justice at aaaallll, but here is a photo. Just imagine this, but 4 times as many stars, just not bright enough for my n...

Organic chemistry - semester one. It is done. Please don't ask me how the exam went. It's over now and really, that's all that matters to me right now. Now I just have to finalize my 26 page paper and study for my non-cumulative neuro exam on Sunday, and I'll be on my way back home for break! But right now, I'm just going to take 5 or 6 hours to do absolutely nothing. And that's the story of why I have time to write a blog post. I don't even have any photos to share because nothing other than studying for exams has happened in the past week. Last night I went to sleep at 10:30. I woke up at 1:30 after a bad dream, checked my phone for 5 minutes and then went back to sleep. I woke up again at 3:30, couldn't fall back asleep, walked around Southgate looking for people to talk to, and then came back and tried to sleep. I ended up not being able to fall asleep again until about 5:30. Then I woke up again at 7:30. So in total that is 8 hours. Wow, it seeme...

It was Tuesday I think when I wrote this in a spur of the moment type of thing. I was doing work (should've been doing work) and it just kind of started. I was conflicted about whether I should write it or not, but I figured I didn't want to lose anything that I might regret later. It's a spoken word type of thing, not really a poem. Slam poetry? I'm by no means a writer or a poet, but this is just Sonal's spur of the moment. I wanted to lengthen it and that's why I didn't post it at the time, but I'm pretty sure if I do, it won't have the same feeling as before. So yeah. Here ya go. Live in the Now. Forget about that boy who broke your heart, he doesn't matter anymore. Why does it matter if she broke up with you or you broke up with her or who broke up with who? Move on. Because life goes on. And people come and people go. And if they shouldn't be going, you should be knowing and doing what you can do to keep them in your life. Th...

I don't really have time for this, but a really quick one. Today I decided to read my horoscope. You know, just for the hell of it. Here's what it said: You may have been a bit indecisive lately when it comes to love and romance, Aquarius. Perhaps your mind is drawn to one person while your heart is drawn to another. Perhaps you're trying to trick your mind into seeing a certain quality in someone while you ignore parts that you don't really like. Make sure you accept people for all of who they are and not just the individual parts. I laughed. I'm pretty sure I embrace all of people. And as for love, lol, what love? Sonal doesn't have a love life. But it's okay, because she has great friends and a great family and goes to a great school. It'll happen when it's meant to, right? I have to start accepting that. But you know those internal conflicts? Yeah, those are the worst. It's easier to stop liking someone when you're not close to the...