Birthday Wishes from Past Kat

Today I received birthday wishes from everyone (and an awesome surprise party put on by R & A, so happy! Didn't realize I had so many great friends that I shared hilarious/embarrassing/amazing memories with), including myself. To be more specific, an email from 18 year old Kat who was about to graduate from high school.

She (I?) made predictions about the future. Most of them have not (yet?) come true. The email was long, but it ended on a hopeful note:

I could ramble on forever but I'm sure you're tired of hearing from your 18 year old self. How old are you now... 22? Good grief, old fart (:

I hope you haven't done anything illegal or anything you really regret. Life has been good, and life will continue to be good if you let it. So don't ever give up. Because you have 18 - now 22 years of self interest invested in YOU. Don't let that go to waste.

I believe in you.

They all do.

It's 12:16 and mother has turned off the shower water. She's probably going to walk in and yell at me for not going to sleep earlier - we're going hiking tomorrow after all. Oh, there goes the door. I guess it's time to call it a wrap.

MEAT forever (:

Peace, love, & canker sores.

Kathleen Tang, age 18
June 8, 2008

PS. Happy birthday!

Almost there

It's strange to think that in eleven days I will be a Harvard College graduate.

My academic learning, for all intents and purposes, has already come to an end. I submitted my final paper last week, which ran almost six pages over the limit. Academically I have to say that I am satisfied. Of course, I'm no longer the straight A student that I was in high school, but each year my grades saw great improvement and I have always resonated well with my social anthropology courses -- resulting in a department recommendation for cum laude. Graduating with honors when I've prioritized extra curriculars throughout college? I'll take that.

Socially, it has been a topsy turvy journey for me all throughout college, and even to the end it remains this way. As a happy-go-lucky person I've found that the way people make and retain friends in college (or at least at Harvard) is through constant communication. Not being the best at this (and always having a boyfriend to hang out with) has often led to complacency, but I still feel blessed to know that there are many people that I care about here and who (hopefully) care bout me as well.

The future is a constant thought on my mind. As I sit on the dish chair in my otherwise emptied out room (the girl who wanted the dish chair never came to pick it up), I read a line in Middlesex that entreats rereading, "the yellow globes of streetlamps glow, aureoled in the mist". This line describes how I feel about the future. The lanes of tomorrow are lit, glowing and promising but ultimately indiscernible. I'm scared. I'm hopeful. I'm almost there.

Life Lessons from a Second Semester Senior

1) There is no such thing as second semester senior when you’ve lived the sss lifestyle for half of your college career. Somehow this second semester is more packed and stressful than many a semester I’ve had in the past. Maybe senior week will be that promised drunken, debaucherous, devil-may-care mess?
2) If you have any inkling what you want to do after college pursue it. After almost an entire year of trial-and-error applying to fellowships my dreams for next year have finally come true. I’ve received a fellowship to travel to Japan, rebuild a community, and document this process through photo and video. Eventually this will all cumulate in a visual memoire and exhibit. It’s like the thesis I never got to do in college. Pretty sweet deal.
3) Be proud of what you’ve accomplished during your time at Harvard. Oftentimes we downplay the sheer amount of stuff we’ve accomplished. It wasn’t until I was at a mock interview for the fellowship that I was told by interviewers how much I had to offer. “Talk more about the human rights work you did in South Africa. You spent a summer breakdancing in Japan, I mean, that’s crazy! Talk about your 4 years of dance experience. What about all those photo/visual projects you’ve completed? Didn’t you work for a week with Habitat for Humanity in Alabama?” I had to play myself up to myself, but in the process I got to reflect on just how much fun I’ve had during my time at college. I am a completely different person from when I first walked in due to these great experiences.
4) Letting go is surprisingly hard. The excitement of WorldMUN gearing up for yet another year is incredible. Yet for the first time in 4 years I will not be a part of this new team. Yes I still stalk the worldmun inbox, yes I try to get the low down on interviews whenever possible. Who knew letting go of a source of so much stress this past year would be so hard?? I guess I’ll just have to drop by next year, wherever it may be.
5) Friendships are tough. I’ve been getting lazy with the trying to catch up with everyone mentality. When there’s only a month left I should try harder, especially with people close to me. Since I will no longer be in Boston next year I won’t be able to pop in and say hi every so often. Can’t hold grudges when there’s so little time left - gotta get on that.
6) Summer planning is tough. But hey New Orleans, Las Vegas, Napa, Spain, Morocco, Germany, Czech Republic, and Turkey are going to be fun.

And the curtain falls

700+ unread 9gag posts later and the conference has come to a resounding end.

WorldMUN, it's been real. When I will ever have such a valuable experience again I don't know.

I love the conference, I love the people, but when you love something you have to let it go.. right?

And enter senior spring proper!

No rest for the weary

I have 100+ unread 9gag posts on my RSS feed: true indicator of how little down time there's been lately.

Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are hellish for school and WorldMUN and Thursdays and Fridays are times when I need to get my creativity kicking for my documentary & VES class which... I have not done anything for yet. Weekends? Readings, response papers, and response questions.

Senior spring is not quite where it should be yet, but the pockets of time spent with friends and R have been lovely and oh so very appreciated (:

What's up

This semester has been pretty packed so far (with readings 2 anthro courses and an english literature course? What was I thinking?) but not unrewarding. A lot of little things and one big thing has made the last 2 weeks awesome.

Last weekend, chairing with N and S, my high school role models, at SCVMUN was awesome. High School kids have so much energy, I can't believe N can still keep up with them, I definitely couldn't. Definitely a great pre-WorldMUN experience and a good chance to spend some time at home.

Made this lamb hot pot (next picture is what was on the inside). Didn't quite turn out as awesomely delicious as I intended but still was all finished by the end of dinner.

Yes I know this is at some weird rotation. Too lazy to fix.

Last night I received a phone call from a friend "Kat... I need your help. We have 1,000 dollars of open tab at Russell House Tavern and can't possibly finish it all. Hurry!" That would be what I get asked to help out with. Almost needless to say I gave up almost all of today to last night.

Today I had a group gchat with my siblings:

Alexander: i've been missing ouy

out

me: what were you doing?

Fiona: ouy?

Alexander: stuff

Fiona: oy?

me: shady

Alexander: randon stuff

random

Fiona: randon?

me: why are you so shady alex

hahahaha

fiona's a stickler for spelling

Alexander: why you little...

Fiona: ha

heha

Alexander: RAGE

Fiona: he

Alexander: ...

Amusing (:

Dinner with a friend tomorrow and then Senior Bar afterwards. Looking forward to Saturday and then Sunday brunch at Saus. All good things, just taking it one week at a time.

Also, 30 days until WorldMUN - crazy!

And... Boston

Chillin' at an airport because they believed I wouldn't make it to the 830am flight. Well, I could have made it if you didn't change my ticket to 11am. Damn you Toronto-Pearson.

Anyway, 8:50am, which is really for me 5:50am, is a great time to reflect on my break thus far. Let's see what I accomplished...

- Take house dance classes and choreograph for Cultural Rhythms (Partially done, this is what the last week of break will be dedicated to. Hello lowell dance studio!)

- Cook at least twice a week, probably more (Eh, more like probably not. Ate out way too much to do this. But I did make:

Tomato-moz-basil and asparagus-prosciutto-pancetta pizza

Delish lamb with herb and breadcrumb rub

Chinese veggies courtesy of Rli's dad's recipe (now a family favorite)

Chinese soup also courtesy of Rli's dad's recipe - omnom, workin' on my Chinese cooking

Pepperoni and cheddar stuffed mushrooms (devoured in seconds)

- Relearn how to drive (Check, basically without a scratch or incident. Ok, so there was that one red light but that was it, really!)

- Kick it with friends (Did a TON of this, which was awesome)

- Play Skyrim (K.R. leveled up twice or so, nb nb)

Additional things done:
- Spend quality time with S in Napa and San Francisco
- Discover new bars in San Jose (TANQ Mondays and Singlebarrel I'm looking at you)
- Realize how awesomely fun my family is
- Spent 4 stressful/busy/cold but fruitful/eventful/fun days in Vancouver with the WorldMUN 2012 host team
- Watch a meteor shower (somewhat)
- Visit Davis & a honky tonk bar (not sure how I feel about the latter)
- Realize how lucky I am and how awesome certain people are (;
- Get introduced to a new hill and spend lots of time at the old one
- Make the worst football bets known to man

This break was fantastic. I have never had so much fun, nor have I missed home so much after a break. Both looking forward to and dreading next semester. What's ahead?

- Fellowship Apps
- Cultural Rhythms (c'mon choreo..)
- WorldMUN 2012!!
- Friends
- Drinks
- 32 Restaurants, many bars, go go go
- Senior Week
- Graduation

Say what!? Last semester here we go.