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Aug. 23rd, 2010 01:07 pmMy life has improved greatly since my last post, and mostly for completely superficial reasons, such as:
--it has been sunny for the past two days
--I have sat and written in multiple cafes
--school begins on Thursday! and I get to see people again!
--Berkeley is beginning to feel alive again and reminding me why I'm in love
There are some non-superficial reasons for my life being better, such as the fact that Peggy Reynolds, who is officially the most awesome woman in the world (as if I didn't know this already) took time out of her vacation in Australia with her family to effectively re-write the salient portions of the letter of recommendation that wasn't submitted properly to the Marshall Scholarship application. As a result of this, I now basically have all my letters of rec and am feeling a lot better about this application. It's beginning to feel like a good thing that it's out of my hands, rather than a terrifying thing (though of course it's still terrifying).
Also, I had a realization the other day that, even if I don't make it back to London in the way I want to, I'm fundamentally not worried at all about making it back to Berkeley. I'm sure it's a dangerous belief to indulge in, because it's no more or less certain than my return to London, but nonetheless I've somehow stumbled upon a belief that if I want to spend a significant portion of my life as a Berkeley professor, well, that's probably what I'll do!
I'm also feeling lots better about my SURF presentation, which is tomorrow. As a culmination of my summer research I have to give a 15-minute presentation about what I've learned so far, and somehow I've managed to come up with a viable presentation that doesn't go too far over time and seems to elaborate the main argument I realized this summer. About a week ago, I didn't think that either of those things was even possible.
I'm typing this as I sit sipping iced coffee from Cafe Milano, looking out down Bancroft toward Telegraph and the heart of the Berkeley campus community, remembering why I love this school and the life I live here, and totally ready for my next year as a Berkeley student to begin -- because I'm also pretty sure that it won't be my last.
--it has been sunny for the past two days
--I have sat and written in multiple cafes
--school begins on Thursday! and I get to see people again!
--Berkeley is beginning to feel alive again and reminding me why I'm in love
There are some non-superficial reasons for my life being better, such as the fact that Peggy Reynolds, who is officially the most awesome woman in the world (as if I didn't know this already) took time out of her vacation in Australia with her family to effectively re-write the salient portions of the letter of recommendation that wasn't submitted properly to the Marshall Scholarship application. As a result of this, I now basically have all my letters of rec and am feeling a lot better about this application. It's beginning to feel like a good thing that it's out of my hands, rather than a terrifying thing (though of course it's still terrifying).
Also, I had a realization the other day that, even if I don't make it back to London in the way I want to, I'm fundamentally not worried at all about making it back to Berkeley. I'm sure it's a dangerous belief to indulge in, because it's no more or less certain than my return to London, but nonetheless I've somehow stumbled upon a belief that if I want to spend a significant portion of my life as a Berkeley professor, well, that's probably what I'll do!
I'm also feeling lots better about my SURF presentation, which is tomorrow. As a culmination of my summer research I have to give a 15-minute presentation about what I've learned so far, and somehow I've managed to come up with a viable presentation that doesn't go too far over time and seems to elaborate the main argument I realized this summer. About a week ago, I didn't think that either of those things was even possible.
I'm typing this as I sit sipping iced coffee from Cafe Milano, looking out down Bancroft toward Telegraph and the heart of the Berkeley campus community, remembering why I love this school and the life I live here, and totally ready for my next year as a Berkeley student to begin -- because I'm also pretty sure that it won't be my last.
