Published by andy October 8th, 2007
in Princeton.
This is my closing post for this blog. Below is my essay for the Dale family, who sponsored my trip to India, as well as some pictures of my life back at Princeton.
I know that nobody really checks this blog anymore, but this experience meant a lot to me and will be something I will never forget. I’m glad there’s a way to relive it again 20 years down the line.
Hari Om Tat Sat,
Andy
———
As I sit here in the dim light of Murray-Dodge Café reflecting on my experience over the last summer, I can scarcely believe that I am back at Princeton as a junior, immersed again in the rapidity and fullness of the intellectual challenges and extracurricular business that define my life at the University. Just a month ago, I sat in the similarly sparse light of the ashram’s yoga hall, seated before an endless expanse of Indian countryside, meditating to the rhythm of my teachers’ sacrosanct chants.
Here in the café, Green Day’s Time of Your Life is playing softly in the midnight background: “Take the photographs and still frames in your mind, and hang them on a shelf of good health and good time.” It’s likely impossible to distill the contents of the photojournal blog I kept religiously over the summer into a few pages, but I’ll try to highlight the key portions of my journey.
Continue reading ‘All Good Things’
Published by andy September 11th, 2007
in Princeton and Shanghai.
It’s really late, and I’m typing this in between packing to keep awake to catch my early morning flight. I’m leaving Shanghai today for Princeton, bringing to conclusion a summer filled with experiences that I can scarcely believe I’ve had — memories I know will inform the decisions I make from here on out. My last few days in Shanghai have shifted my focus away from the LSATs and onto my impending return to Princeton. Album here.
On the LSAT end, I got a 168 on my last practice test, representing more than a 10-point jump from my initial diagnostic. This is a good sign, but I know there isn’t much predictive validity in a single practice test — much preparation lies ahead to make that score consistent and to see that it rises to its fullest potential by the February test date. I’m doing my best to set a schedule for consistent weekly practice, and not to worry about it too much.
Aside from test prep, my last few days have been exhausting but great. The design agency I run back at school is swinging back into full force, tons of jobs are coming in, and I’m having to coordinate a million things at once via email. Despite this, I’m finding ways out of stress by spending time with some of my friends here in Shanghai, enjoying the last few bits of my summer vacation.
Continue reading ‘End of the Beginning’
Published by andy August 25th, 2007
in Shanghai.
The last week has floated by in a rather uneventful, rapid haze. My days seem to fall repetitively into each other, planned begrudgingly around this LSAT prep course. Nonetheless, they’re offering me a chance to reacclimate to the life I occupied before going to India, and I’m starting to realize the importance of this summer in terms of what it’s taught me about myself. Album here.
I feel as though I’m watching life happen around me as if it were a foreign language movie with subtitles. I can clearly understand what’s going on, but it comes to me filtered — and I am somehow detached. This is a difficult time because I’m having to schedule everything around the two hours of LSAT hell a day, which turns into four hours with the hour-long commute each way. I’ve found a bus route to the Princeton Review, thank God — cheaper, faster, and less of a hassle.
Continue reading ‘A Shift of Soul’
Published by andy August 16th, 2007
in Shanghai.
I’ve been back in Shanghai for a few days now — and am trying to sift through my memories to make sense out of my experience this summer. It feels a lifetime ago I left the ashram, those endless acres of rolling green hills and waterfalls and the peaceful security of the Indian countryside. And though I remember thinking myself a complete foreigner in India, in some ways, I find myself even more out of place here in the Chinese megalopolis. Facebook photo album here.
People are everywhere, just like India — but the rapid growth of mass consumerist infrastructure has made local life here increasingly impersonal. It seems like everyone is always on their cell phone, even while mopeding down excessively busy boulevards, offering very little in the way of attention to the going-on’s around them.
The moist summer heat drenches the myriad bodies rushing in and out of metro stations, fighting to squeeze into suffocating subway cars. It’s not really clear why people are in such a hurry — except, perhaps, to keep up with everybody else around them.
Continue reading ‘In No Hurry’
