Friday 31 March 2017

My Graduation Speech II

We have fought to find internships, we lost to our visa status.
We have fought our Windows machine, but lost to code.
We have fought our kitchen, but lost to the fire alarms.
We have fought for that washer unit that takes one quarter instead of five, but lost to someone else being faster. Even on Friday nights.
We have fought for that TA/RA position, but lost to some "policies of the department".

But we never stopped fighting.

We started our research projects instead. And we again fought for full-time jobs.
We installed Ubuntu instead. Fought the thought of buying a Mac.
We opened windows to let out the smoke. And fought to learn cooking in microwave instead.
We visited the laundry building 3 times. And fought to perfectly time to get the cheaper dryer as well.
We got job at dining services instead. And fought to cut down those trips to Chipotle.

One of my teachers from high school framed an answer for the question: why learn in school things we are never going to use later in life? He said, it's only a scale of measurement.

Graduation speeches usually include tips and tricks to survive outside college, sometimes stories of survival in the world, but I don't have any of these. I only have my past experience telling me we have won, not just once, but over and over. We have given up sometimes, procrastinated more often, but never missed the deadlines. We have been successful on this reference scale - not our GPA, not the money we made; but how we never stopped working. My only tip for after college life is keep hustling. And one day, we'll figure out what we want to do with our lives.


Thursday 30 March 2017

My Graduation Speech

I read somewhere that when we are kids time moves slowly for us, and as we grow older we feel time is flying by us faster and faster. Some believe this happens because as kids our brains expand more, we experience more each day. Since then I have used time as a scale. If I look back to 2015 - I see a kid, far far away from here, in all the dimensions we can perceive.
She has since fought, and cried, laughed, and learnt. She has tried to walk in snow with heavy boots, and tried to sleep at night with a heavy heart. She has loved, lost and loved again. Then again she has won, lost and won. There have been adventures, misadventures, and missed adventures.
To add a conclusion to this chapter would be unfair.
:)