Time Changes Memories Don't

As soon as Flight Number 406 was on the runway to head to the Oakland International Airport from Chicago Midway Aiport, my heart beat increased. I felt really nostalgic about my memories but lightly excited because I was going to see my family. My family does not fly often but I felt the same way when we took off from Nepal to come back to the United States, early in 2014. For the past three weeks, Chicago has been my home. As a matter of fact, I made a light joke to my friends where I told them to call me, "The King of the University of Chicago", and the title stuck, for the rest of the three weeks.

The King of UChicago with his two warriors

On the flight back, I looked through all of my Snapchat stories and Instagram posts to question if I was ever going to have such a good time ever again. College is going to be completely different because it is extremely unaffordable whereas this time around all of the trip expenses were covered by the Ivy League Connection to study at UChicago. I looked back through all my memories and I recalled the story of when we were about to head out to UChicago.

At 2:15 AM my parents and I arrived at El Cerrito High School to head out to Chicago. I was pumped, thrilled, and hungry to soak in Economics knowledge, all while establishing long-lasting relationships. At the time, my parents had that very disconsolate yet excited feeling running through their veins. I was completely the opposite; I was very pumped and lightly emotional. Never had I ever been away from both my parents for more than 5 days, whereas this time it was for over 3 weeks. This is what was exciting. From the moment I left, I knew that I was going to develop new skills along the way that I can share with my community, all while having fun.

The first week we travelled around the city, enjoying the beautiful sceneries, and of course the deep-dish pizza the city offers. One of the major highlights of the week was visiting Northwestern University. We saw the pride of the Wildcats, The Rock. While I had this gut feeling that the Rock would be rather boring, it was quite the opposite. I found the history of the Rock to be very unique. Starting as a prank to troll the Freshman class, it later on became a tradition where students are able to draw on to their opinions about various topics of interests, and the art lasts for a day, or until someone else paints on it.

The Rock (not Dwayne Johnson)

Through the first few days, we traveled around the city, learning the Chicago culture. One of the many things I started to pick up was the importance of working out. When we walked only a couple of miles, my body did not support it. Though I take public transportation often, I had never really had to walk far to reach my destination. We were walking 15,000 steps per day when in Downtown Chicago. 

After coming back from this trip and checking the weight scale, I apparently lost 10 pounds in the duration of 3 weeks. I ate less and walked more. 

Besides learning about my body, the first day at the University of Chicago felt great! Gradually, I realized the importance of working with people you don't know or dislike. Regularly, my roommate asked me to step out of the room for a certain amount of hours, which felt uncomfortable. But even so, learning how to solve the issue maturely was significant. Later on, I got my room switched so it would not take away from my study time and everything worked out. It was this initial idea of how to effectively solve problems that I took away during my first week of the Summer Session.

With group members

Furthermore, I worked in a group with students that had an absolute advantage in Econ as compared to me because they had taken Econ courses prior to the start of the class. When working in a group at Middle College, I had always been the one leading the group. This time it felt different because it was quite the opposite. I understood very little because their Economic knowledge was way out of my league. But I slowly learned that I had to work independently before I came to group meetings - review the basic concepts, understand the question intuitively/analytically, etc. It was me having to readjust environments that was difficult. From being one of the top students in the grade to having to better adapt to the University of Chicago's teaching style was difficult. These students came here because they chose to not because they were pressured by their parents. At least for me, I learned that there is more competition that is out there in the world, and I am one of the millions of people that aims to study at Stanford. What makes me unique and different?

I previously mentioned in my last blog about how learning about my weaknesses is better than knowing my strengths. Weaknesses are what I can use to build progress. I realized that mixing intuition with math is way difficult as compared to doing math alone. I have taken Calculus before and I always did horrible in the very word problems on the test. It took me hours before I even understood the question. Because the class did not develop my intuitive side, I struggled a lot in Economics. Essentially I learned that if I was to get into finance, computer science or even economics, I must understand how to intuitively understand word problems and then convert it to a mathematical equation. But it is the "How" that is the problem for word problems. For the next few months, I am going to go through my Economics textbook and solve the word problems at the end of the chapters to make this weakness my strength. 

This is the era of connectivity. Social media applications make it as easy as ever to connect with people, regardless of their distance. In 2009, I remember using Yahoo messenger at my uncle's house to contact relatives in Nepal whereas about a decade later, everyone owns a laptop and communication is as easy as ever with social media applications. In the blink of an eye, I can send a text to one of my friends. My friends at UChicago have a group chat in Snapchat named after me (people call me Theodore over there), Theodore's Homies, where we have sent over 400 texts and 20 pictures in the past 3 days. In our group chat, we have Umer, Checo, Gulli, Julia, and Max. Julia thought of the idea of a group chat and started it from my phone, as soon as we were about to leave UChicago. It feels good to remain in touch even if the program is over. 

The night before we came back to California

From Day One, I have experienced a great change in my life mentality. From eating healthier all the way to learning how to connect with people, the Ivy League Connection has greatly impacted me. As I write this 2000 miles away from Chicago, I feel very nostalgic and saudade. This experience, indeed, has transformed me into a better person. 

At a Middle College class, I mostly sat towards the back because the subjects were easy or they did not interest me whereas here I sat in the front hungry for knowledge, simply because the course was difficult and interested me. I miss Chicago for the skills I developed, the knowledge I gained, and people I met! Hope I see you soon Chicago. :)