Hello, to whoever is reading this blog post right now! It’s been a while since I bid the sad goodbye to dear Ireland, spent some time back in China, and now I have been back on the Holy Cross campus for four weeks now. During the summer, I worked an internship at a headhunting firm, decided I wanted to take some cura personalis time and therefore had two weeks off – which was planned to be dedicated to reading, but turned out to be dedicated to Netflix and seeing old friends mostly. Afterwards, I have worked a job that I have previously worked for, which is being a tutor for kids who needs a bit of extra help for their TOEFL and SAT exams.
I got back to the Holy Cross campus during late July, and started doing some planning and preparation for International Student Orientation. This year, we had 6 amazing teammates leading Orientation, and we eventually had 23 international students joining us. Here are some highlights!
Returning back to campus was pretty weird and wild after being gone for a semester, a lot of things are still the same despite it feels a bit different. It mostly definitely felt weird to be the oldest ones on campus. It felt weird not living in Loyola after living there for a year and a half. It also felt weird that I cannot bear to carry on with some of my extracurricular, but it also rejuvenates thinking about all that I ended up doing.
This semester, I am finally taking four classes (back to a normal courseload, finally, phew) again. I am taking Artificial Intelligence, Computation Visions for my computer science higher level electives, Balinese Gamelan music for cross-cultural and music elective, and then a digital art class for fun. All of the classes has been intellectually challenging in their own unique ways, and it is definitely so good to be back in HC taking classes that are just below 20 people and sitting in office hours for 2 hours sometimes.
Outside of class, I am continuing with College Choir and Chamber Singers, and we will have our first concert of the year in St. Joseph’s Chapel next Friday! I am involved with Student Advisory Council for both Music and Math & CS. For Music SAC we are planning a Music Madness concert for this Friday – each person who signs up plays some instrument that they are amateurish or not very good at playing, and they get paired into ensembles of about 4,5 people, practice a song (from a TV show or a movie since this is our theme for this year) for 30 minutes and perform it in front of judges and audiences! So that is definitely something else that I look forward to. I am also involved with Senior Interviewer Program by the Admissions office, and we interview prospective seniors who are looking into Holy Cross.
I still can’t believe that fall break and a third of the semester is over already! During fall break, I got a chance to get out of campus and admire the beauty of fall in New England for a short while. I also just took a lot of time to rest up from the two midterms that I had before break and did just enough homework to leave me not so stressed post-break.
Now I am feeling more rested and plenty recharged for post-fall break craziness, as the concert and everything starts to hit. I am also excited for this year and what it brings forth for me, as scary as that is. Stay tuned!