Fearless

My life feels... really different. No duh, Sonal, your present is your present, it's not your past. I don't know if it's because the classes that I'm taking are all wonderful and interesting, or that I'm finally starting to figure out what I want to do with my life or that I'm keeping busy and not giving myself enough time to think, or that everything is going so agreeably well that I don't need to write. The people in my TED talks class discuss having self evaluations every end of the year or semester, but this is something that I do on almost a weekly basis. For example, there are so many things I could be doing right now because I have midterms coming up and I have to read for lab and so on and so forth but instead I'm writing because I haven't written in a while and it makes me sad.  I think I'm in far enough into sophomore year to make an evaluation. Things feel different, obviously; I live on West where it's so difficult to see peopl...

How are you today? Happy? Good. I would hope so. So I'm in this really awesome class about TED Talks and literally all we do is go in, watch two or three talks, and then discuss them as a group. It's a course taught by students so it's super relaxed and I get a half credit for doing something I probably would do on my own time! There were two talks in particular that I feel, if you get the chance, are definitely worth a watch. You might've seen this one before, Sarah Kay on the power of spoken word. First off, her spoken word at the beginning is beautiful written and performed and her metaphors are new and strong. Then she goes on to describe how she's used spoken word in classrooms with kids and with adults to help them express themselves. She says that she uses spoken word to figure things out, so that when she gets to the end of a poem, she's discovered something that she didn't know before. This is something that I relate to strongly, but with my...

I remember in middle school and high school when we complained we had too much work to do and ended up actually complaining more than actually doing work. It's not like we don't do that anymore, but definitely not in the same way and not nearly as much. Today is probably one of the most productive days of my life. I had a pre-health volunteering interview at 9, then Chinese at 11:45, then another interview at 1:30, then went to talk to the lab that I'm dying to get into at 2, class coming up at 3, another class at 6:15, and then hopefully finish the day off with a shit ton of homework and getting ahead so that I can chill this weekend. I finally feel like a productive member of the Duke society, like the school couldn't get rid of me even if it wanted to. I like being completely busy during the day, always doing something. I like walking with a purpose, with good posture and medium to high speed. The people who walk extra slowly down the pathway taking up the entir...

When I was around 14, my sister was taking dance classes at a local Bollywood dance studio. I can't remember why, but I asked my mom if I could take dance classes too and she was shocked at first because she never thought I would ever do anything performance related. I was a pretty shy kid. So I joined the class and for the first month or two was very awkward and tight and reserved with my movements. I performed at my 8th grade talent show with a friend and I think, even though in retrospect it was not very good at all, that first on stage performance was what made me want to keep dancing. Hearing people applaud for movement you have created with your body, or anything at all that you have created actually, is one of the best feelings I've ever felt. My first year of learning dance, my parents always told me that I was very stiff, that I was too focused on getting the steps right as opposed to having fun and looking like I was enjoying myself. I was enjoying myself though, but...