WEEK 2!

Greetings Everyone!!

This marks week 2 of 13 on this once in a lifetime journey. Events of this week include the tragic loss of Safe Saleh, my first visitor, and the start of classes.

Tragic Loss of Safe Saleh:

The congregation of St. Mary in East Brunswick has unfortunately been hit with tragic news of Safe Saleh losing his life to sickness. Safe was a high school freshman and considered one of the funniest youth at the church. Homesickness definitely hit me when I heard the news, and I was not able to be home for the services. His memory lives on forever.

 First Visitor:

Last Saturday, I was honored to host Augustine Tawadros and his family to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He and his family came up to visit his sister, Nardine at MCAPH across town. I gave the Harvard tour during the visit, where I was doing a little bit of exploring myself. (I haven’t been in half of the building we went into). We then went to Cambridge Galleria, the local mall. Great time away from the library! First Visitor Award goes to Augi!

Boston and Home Life:

I made a joke over the weekend about how I couldn’t make my bed because I’m really busy as a full time student (AND I AM OCD WHEN IT COMES TO BEDROOM CLEANLINESS). My snide elicited pity laughter at the very least, but it got me thinking about how being a student has been my job day in and day out for the last 15 years of my life…and I’m not at all sick of it! Wouldn’t it be the best if students got pensions??While I definitely have spent a LOT of time in the library over the past two weeks, I’ve also been busy getting myself organized in my own room at the house, SO THANK GOODNESS that’s over.

First Impressions of Classes and the Future:

With all humility, getting into Harvard University is a huge accomplishment by itself; the school had a record-low 5.9 percent admission rate last year. But the greater challenge is learning how to stand out among the thousands of stellar students. These kids have made breakthroughs in scientific research, fought for social justice, and created a better community at Harvard. Despite the fact that everyone on campus looks like Harry Potter characters, it is truly an honor to be among my colleagues.

With regards to the first week of classes, I internally overdramatized how difficult it was really going to be. I am taking three courses: Graduate Research Designs and Methods, Cycles of War and Peace, and Human Rights and International Politics. Two of the three classes are seminar-based classes, meaning: 12 people per class, and the professor serves as the facilitator to all the conversation we hold together. All in all, despite having 2 papers, and three presentations due next week, (this was the first week of classes)- the classes and the professors are GREAT! Enjoyable, engaging, and all appealing to my line of work.

Believe it or not, I had to start looking at the courses I am supposed to take in the summer starting this week. The schedule was just released! As far as class selection goes, I’m still definitely in the throes of shopping week – for once, I don’t have any requirements to fulfill the following semester, which leaves me the challenge of finding awesome electives. It’s both exciting and a bit overwhelming to head into course shopping with little definition of what I’ll be taking, but I’m eager to see what I come up with at the end of the week!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK