Our Fickle Friend

We're running out of time. Yes, that sentence sounds very ominous, I know, but it's the conclusion that I've come to. You see, I've been thinking about time a lot lately.

As far as we know, time only goes in one direction - forward. Therefore, once time has passed, you can't get it back no matter how hard you try. I speak to this from experience because let me tell you, I've tried pretty hard before... But anyway, why was I thinking about time?

Because we only have a two weeks left in the semester (not counting finals week).

The end of this semester will mark the end of our first year of college, our last time ever being able to call ourselves freshmen, and the end of one of the greatest transitional periods of our young lives. 

Me, thinking about this year being over.
Source.

Our last day as freshmen is just around the corner, and I spent a lot of time yesterday sitting at the duck pond looking at all the little ducklings, listening to music, and thinking about what this means. I spent time reflecting on how I spent my time (lol) these past months and how I should approach the future. 

The fact is, our time is limited. In an ideal world, we'd have enough time to try everything that enters our hearts and minds, but we all live in the real world, so we have to choose. Over the past couple of weeks I have been making attempts to do just that. 

More specifically, I've been trying to plan the rest of my college career, which basically means figuring out where I want to be at the end of this journey. Doing so, I became acutely aware of how little time there is to actually figure anything out. We have to fit school, work, extracurriculars, a social life, and sleep into our lives somehow, and it's basically a big balancing act. Every activity is interconnected because it dictates how you will spend your time, and the hardest part is trying to factor in how our decisions now will affect us further on down the line. 

All of this planning and thinking ahead made me very stressed, but it also helped me realize something:

In college and in life, there are many things that we want to do. Personally, I want to try my hand at everything. I want to figure skate, dance, sing, play four different instruments, learn all of the romance languages, dance in THON, help Lunar Lion get to the moon, build an airplane, join half of the clubs that I see at the activity fair, and more. However, it's not possible to commit yourself to doing all of those things at once. You have to choose what is most important to you, and spend time doing whatever will add the most to your life. 

If you love what you do and who you do it with, no time is ever wasted. 

Black or Pinto?

Going to Chipotle for the first time can now be considered a pretty important life event, and even though I had my very first Chipotle burrito over 7 years ago, I still remember it as if it were yesterday. It was an abnormally cold and rainy summer day, a day ill-suited for a beach trip. Yet there I was, with my mom and my best friend Anastasiya, trying to brave the wind on the sands of Belmar Beach. We tried for a few minutes, until we wisely decided to call is quits and find something else to do to convince ourselves the hour drive down was worth it. Of course, we settled on shopping. A couple hours later and a few dollars shorter, we're all starving. The place we decided to eat? Why Chipotle, of course!

I remember walking in and being a little bit amazed, and very intimidated. I had never ordered food in such a way, and all of the choices were a little bit overwhelming. But the line wasn't long - a rarity nowadays  - and I got to take my time in deciding what I wanted. I eventually decided on a burrito with pinto beans, white rice, chicken, mild and medium salsa, and everything but the lettuce. Yes, I was okay that guac cost extra, and I'm still okay with it today.

I am Leo.
Source.

So tonight, my future roommate and I decided to do spend quality time together and go for some late night Chipotle. Tonight, I had my nth burrito to date (I haven't really been keeping track, but I'm sure it's a lot). Maybe because it's blogging day, or maybe it's the first time I've really thought about this, but I started to wonder about the history of Chipotle.

There lives a man, his name is Steve Wells, and he has changed many lives by creating Chipotle. So Steve was kind of a delinquent in high school, but he straightened out in college and really discovered his love for cooking. Upon his graduation, him and his dad Bob Wells made a deal that if Steve spent a year working in some capacity in the food industry, he would pay for his culinary school education. 

In 1990, Steve finished his education at the Culinary Institute of America and moved to San Francisco, which is where he first fell in love with big, foil wrapped burritos. Three years later, with the help of his college buddies and his dad, he opened the very first Chipotle in Denver, Colorado. Back then, no one ever expected it to grow into the $20 billion burrito empire that it is today (Side note: It seems like many successful men are named Steve).

The first Chipotle in Denver.
Source.

It started out very modest, with only one store bringing in a couple hundred dollars worth of sales each day. Wells even had the goal of opening a fine dining restaurant on his mind. But as people found out about Chipotle and grew accustomed to its unique style, reviews started to come in and popularity began to rise. Eventually, Steve decided to venture out and open a second store. Then another one, and another one, until he had 13 altogether. But in 1996, they realized that in order to grow even more, they needed investors.

After facing many rejections, Chipotle finally found its "rich uncle" - McDonald's. For a huge food joint like McDonald's, a $50 million investment was not that big of a deal. But for Chipotle, it gave them the money they needed to open over 1,000 stores and even expand abroad.  The partnership with McDonald's, however, was not beneficial in many other ways. McDonald's was very corporate, while Chipotle remained true to its roots, doing everything by hand. Because of reasons like this, Steve Wells and the people of McDonald's often clashed, and it made him an even firmer believer in his concept of "food with integrity." 

When the two companies finally split in 2006, McDonald's came away with a good sum of money, but they ultimately got the shorter end of the stick, as Chipotle flourished even more without them. The public began to love Chipotle for the style of eating, as well as the commitment to truly fresh produce that is questionable in many other fast food restaurants. Over two decades, Steve Wells and his team have built a true burrito empire that has no worthy rival. Their loyal customers will wait in lines snaking out the door, rain or shine, through bitter wind or snow, all to get to the front of the line, hear the words "guac is extra, is that okay?" and happily answer "Yes."

This ad had to retracted.
Source.

A Humble Beginning

Recently, we had to write an essay in my Russian class about our family history, and I found out a lot of things about where I come from. I thought it might be interesting for others as well, so I’d like to share it here. 

My whole family – my parents, my older brother and sister, and I – were all born in Uzbekistan, a country south of Russia, bordered by Kazakhstan and three other “stan” countries. I knew that my dad’s parents had come to Uzbekistan from Korea, but I didn’t know the circumstances.

To understand, a little bit of history is required here:

In the mid to late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the Russian government really wanted the far east of Russia to be populated, so they offered land to Koreans. Because of this, a lot of Koreans immigrated and settled there. But when Stalin came to power in the 1920s, he mistrusted and disliked Koreans and found them to be guilty. It’s unclear as to what Koreans were actually guilty of, but under his command, they were to be deported from Russia to either Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan, and forbidden to return (the ban was lifted in 1956).

Source

So in 1937, government officials came to the town my grandparents (on my father’s side) were living at the time. They told all of the residents that they must come with them and to leave all of their things; that they weren’t needed. Completely unaware of what was about to happen, everyone boarded the carriages and left everything behind. My dad told me that his parents thought they’d be back shortly, but they stayed on that carriage for months, travelling the great distance from the far east to Uzbekistan, where they were dropped off and left on their own, without any guidance or instruction.

That is how my dad’s family came to live in Uzbekistan. Fast forward 23 years and Vyacheslav Nigay is born. He grows up in a family of six children, has a happy childhood filled with exciting stories of fist fights, and then grows up to earn three master’s degrees from three different countries. With his education, he becomes vice president of the Uzbekistan International Airport, where he later meets a woman by the name of Nodira. And you guessed  it, that’s my mom.

They had three kids – Evgenia, Arkadiy, and Natalia (me!) – and everything was good, until it wasn’t. A few years after I was born, at the very end of the  20^th century, the people of Uzbekistan began to reject all non-ethnic Uzbeks. Because my family is technically Korean, that meant us. Employers would not hire anyone who wasn’t completely Uzbek, and my dad, who held a very high ranking position in Uzbekistan, knew that it was time to move.

We moved to Russia, but in Russia, we were always treated as outsiders. So when we won the Green Card lottery, we came to America. According to my dad, all of us hid behind him when we stepped off the plane at JFK. It was a hard adjustment, especially for my parents who had to go to night school for a long time to learn English, but they say it was worth it. Because now they get to see their kids be happy and have a chance to be the people they want to be, with no one telling them that they can’t succeed.  

My dad sacrificed his career, the one he worked for for almost two decades and my parents left everything they knew behind to come to a land halfway across the world with only $100 in their pockets. And here we are now. Happy, healthy, and grateful for everything we have. Sometimes I get caught up in trivial problems and I think that my life is so hard, but now I carry my family’s journey with me. So if I don’t want to do something for myself, I do it for them. 

Families that wear denim together, stay together.

The World is At Your Fingertips

One of my dreams in life, as I’m sure it is for many others, is to travel the world. I’ve had this dream for as long as I can remember. My memory isn’t that great so like, the 5^th grade, but still, a pretty long time. Since the 5^th grade I’ve thought a lot about where I wanted to go and how I could get there. So for me, one of the most exciting things about going to college was the opportunity to study abroad.

Personally, I want to go abroad for a whole semester. There is a lot of planning that goes into it though, and last week I started figuring out the logistics. It seems so simple, yet it’s so complicated at the same time. I don’t know if it’s exactly the same for everyone and every major, but here’s what I did to start my study abroad process.

1.  Email advisor.

I had no idea where to start and the whole process seemed intimidating, so I started simple and e-mailed my advisor asking if he could point me in the right direction. He and told me that I could go online to find a program, or talk to someone in the engineering advising office in Hammond. I decided to do both.

2. Global PSU

This is the website for Penn State study abroad programs. Basically, when I met to meet with someone in person, he just showed me how to navigate and understand the website (which helped a lot, actually.)

§  Under the Going Abroad drop down menu at the top, select Program Search. It will take you to another page, where you can enter things that you want from your study abroad, such as country, major, language of instruction, etc.

§  This will give you, depending on how many criteria you entered, either an extensive or pretty short list of programs to choose from.

§  From there, click on the link and it’ll take you to an info page for the program that’ll tell you the approximate cost, a little bit about the University, prerequisites, and all of the necessary information you need to apply.

§  Note: One of the prerequisites is “class standing.” This is based on number of credits. Check the table below to find out yours.

3. Decide on a Program

For me, this was the hardest part (so far). I had to decide between London, Australia, and New Zealand, all English speaking, all great in their own way. I checked to make sure the universities I was considering offered the equivalent of the course I need to take next spring, and ultimately settled on Monash University in beautiful Melbourne, Australia.

4. Apply!

Before you can select courses, you have to be accepted into the program. To fill out the application, follow the steps provided on Global PSU. Keep in mind the application deadlines! They are usually about 6 months before the start of the semester you wish to go abroad for.

5. Select Your Courses

This part is tricky and I haven’t gotten to it yet, but from what I’ve been told study abroad students get second choice of courses. This means that it’s best to select more courses than you think you need, just in case some are full when the time comes, so you can maintain full-time enrollment (you are also allowed to take one online course offered by Penn State).

But how do you select courses? Great question. First, check the list of historical courses (ones that Penn State students have taken there before and are already approved). If the class you want is on that list, then you’re good. If not, you have to search for classes through the abroad university’s website, then go through a whole process of figuring out course equivalency and getting them approved. To do this, it’s probably helpful to meet with your advisor and the program coordinator (listed on the program’s info page).

6.  Get excited.

I can’t wait to get to this part!!! Hopefully there’s a blog written somewhere on how to pack when you’re going halfway around the world for 5 months…

Source

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby, Let's Talk About You and Me

I live in a special living option called the GLOBE, which is a place where people who are interested in international cultures and global events all live in the same place. I applied to live here not just because it looks kind of like a hotel and the individual bathrooms are pretty sweet, but because we come together at times to talk about issues that are important to us. This week, we talked about sex ed.

Source: Voices of Youth

 Personally, I’ve never given much thought to the importance of sexual education for children and young adults; perhaps I’ve even taken my own education on the topic for granted. I went to a Philadelphia public school and in health class we had units on everything from self-respect and consent to contraceptives and safe sex (they got rid of health due to budget cuts the year we were supposed to take care of egg babies L) Planned Parenthood even came in to give presentations, did free STD testing, and made sure that we all knew of the resources available to us. I can’t imagine going to a school where the topic was not talked about at all, but that is the situation in many places across the country and the world.

For the discussion, one article we read compared teen birth rates in 6 different countries – the U.S., Norway, Canada, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. Unsurprisingly, out of all these countries, the U.S. had by far the highest teen pregnancy and birth rates, with 52.8 pregnancies and 33.8 births per 1000 teens ages 15-19. The next highest was Canada, with 16 births, while the lowest was 2.7 babies for every 1000 teens in Sweden.

The difference between all of these countries is how they go about educating their youth on sex. For example Norway, in this interesting video, talks about sex unabashedly.

Many of those developed countries with low birth rates start their education at a young age, teaching kids about respecting themselves and others. Then, when they get older, they start teaching about puberty and the changes bodies go through. And lastly, they talk about healthy relationships and how to engage in safe and consensual sex.

However, it is understandable that this can’t be done everywhere. The main reason? Religion. Culture and tradition play important roles as well, but a lot of the time they stem from religion. A really interesting part of the discussion was talking about whether sexual education was important enough to go through with, despite heavy opposition from religious groups. In America, a lot of the people who oppose sex ed in schools are immigrants, whose beliefs go against teaching kids about sex before marriage or for anything other than procreation.

But it’s impossible to shield adolescents from sex because it’s so prevalent in the media, so what happens if they have no knowledge of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and don’t use protection? Is there any way to find a balance between personal beliefs and keeping teens and pre-teens safe by making sure they are sexually aware and educated?

Source: Pinterest

It’s a really interesting conversation to have, because there are a lot of different viewpoints that come up when discussing sex ed. This involves cultural differences, personal beliefs, and recognizing the benefits that could come from teaching kids about sex and related things like self-confidence, awareness, consent, relationships, etc.

If you want to learn more about this topic or discuss it with your fellow Penn Staters, it'll definitely be worth it to check out Penn State’s first ever S.E.X. Week, sponsored by Open the Box this April. 

We Get Knocked Down, but We Get Up Again

Has something ever happened in your life that is really trivial in the grand scheme of things, but in the moment it feels like the end of the world? I’m sure it has for you, and it definitely has for me, the most recent time being this past Sunday when I happened to be on ANGEL and decided to check what I got on my math midterm.

The things is, when you’re used to doing well academically, doing so poorly on something is kind of incomprehensible. I sat in the HUB and stared at my screen for a while, refreshing the page hoping for some kind of mistake. When I realized that the red bar was there to stay, my mind  went blank. And when I got back to my room, I got into bed with all of my clothes on, pulled the covers over me, and just lay there. My friend came in, looked at me, and just asked me what flavor ice cream I wanted. (Answer: chocolate therapy).

I lay in bed for the rest of the day blasting Fall Out Boy, crying and laughing at the same time, and I fell asleep watching Grey’s Anatomy without changing into my pajamas. But between then and now, I’ve learned a few things: 

1) Failure is normal. Everyone experiences it at some point in their lives.

2) The only thing you can do is pick yourself up and move on. It does no good to dwell on the fact that you did poorly on something, and instead focus your energies on doing better next time.

My friend's tattoo.

3) The photo above is a tattoo of the geometric symbol for water. As lame as it sounds, it’s a reminder to go with the flow, but more importantly, that things don’t matter in the long run nearly as much as we think they do when we’re experiencing them in the moment. It’s a reminder that the future is out there and it does no good to dwell on the past. That includes failure.

So the next day when I got out of bed, instead of re-evaluating all of my life decisions and reconsidering my choice of major, I set goals. You learn from failure. Because if you fail, you’re doing something, and it’s a chance to try again.

Really, life is all about perspective. How you see failure is how you will go about your life, so why not see it as a second chance. I want to prove to myself that I am better than this one grade, this one failure, and that next time I come face to face with that 10 page beast that goes by the name of “Math Exam 2”, I will be ready.

So if you ever experience failure, it’s okay to be sad, that’s only natural. So lay in bed all day, eat great ice cream, and jam out to your favorite band. But when the sun comes up the next morning, remember that it’s a new day. New opportunities to be successful await you, so don’t let that one failure hold you back. 

Photo courtesy of Genius Quotes

Pending Extinction

Today’s passion blog post is going to be a continuation of this week’s Civic Issues blog (Do You Want to Pet My Tiger?) concerning the exotic animal trade.

This week, I learned just how extensive and underappreciated the exotic animal trade on the black market really is. There is so much to say and so much more to learn about what really goes on in in this kind of trade. Although I talked about a lot in my post for my civic issues blog, I have a lot left to say, and I want to share some more personal feelings.

Photo courtesy of One Green Planet.

Before doing my research, I already knew that the exotic animal trade existed and was hurting wildlife around the world. But I didn’t really know the details. The topic made me sad, but now it makes me angry as well. Clench-my-fists-and-wish-I-went-into-conservation-and-law-enforcement kind of angry. This trade involves so much greed, cruelty, and assumptions on the part of humans. It makes me sick that it’s worth somewhere around $20 billion.

And the worst part is, in my opinion, the lack of people who really care, especially in government. The consequences of illegal wildlife trade is extinction. It’s irreversible. It’s forever. Once a species is gone from this Earth, there is no way (save a time machine, maybe) to get them back. So why does the Drug Enforcement Agency have about 11,000 employees, while the Fish and Wildlife Services has about a third of their man-power?

Tiger cubs confiscated from smugglers.
Photo Courtesty of BBC News Asia.

The opportunity to make a lot of money with little personal consequences is probably the biggest lure people have to start smuggling wildlife. While someone caught smuggling drugs is faced with certain jail time and is considered a felon, someone caught smuggling animals equal in monetary value is let off with barely a slap on the wrist. Sure, the animals are confiscated, but the smuggler is set free with a fine and maybe a night in jail. Repeat offenders aren’t any more likely to be severely punished, either.

Therefore, they have no reason to stop. Why stop, when you’re making big bucks and can practically laugh in the face of law enforcement, knowing they can’t really do anything to keep you from continuing to profit?

But who really buys these animals, and why? The people who buy these animals (online, from breeders, at auctions) can be seen as collectors of a sort. And of course, the more valuable the piece – in this case, the rarer and thus more endangered – the better! Endangered animals fetch prices of up to tens of thousands of dollars, dead or alive. But people also want certain animals for food, or for “medicinal” purposes.

A man tried to smuggle snakes on a plane.
Photo courtesy of ABC News

Methods of smuggling the animals, whether it be tigers, turtles, or butterflies, to wherever they are wanted is horrible. They will be tied up, cramped into whatever space necessary, stuffed in pants or suitcases, strapped to legs, and more. Smugglers will do whatever it takes, and animals dying along the way is no reason to stop. The animals who are confiscated from traffickers, however, do not usually have a happy fate. Some are “lucky” to be placed in sanctuaries where they find companionship and at least a semblance of the lives they were yanked from, but they usually cannot return to the wild. So what is the difference between killing an animal and taking it out of the wild? It does nothing to conserve species living the way they were meant to, before human want got the best of them.  

Photo courtesy of One Green Planet.

So I’m pretty angry. Why? Because I realized the improbability of this stopping. Human want is a constant throughout all of time, and it seems like too many people want an animal that is in danger of becoming extinct. I don’t really care what the reason is, it’s wrong. Wildlife should be protected, not by individuals who think buying an animal is a way to save them from the dangers of their natural habitat, but by people as a whole. More effort should go into uncovering all of the mysteries that drive the exotic animal trade and make it so successful. We, as humanity, need to work on putting a stop to it because our desires are destroying the diversity of our world slowly but surely.

My eyes have been opened. Have yours?

Be My Valentine?

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and this Sunday I'll yet again be (cue music) alll byyy myyysseeelllfff. But unfortunately, my relationship status -  and probable future as a cat lady - is not what this blog post is going to be about. 

Come February 14th, I always find myself wondering how such a holiday came to exist. Is it really just a holiday to celebrate love and romance and give people a day to do the whole "hearts and flowers" thing? Is it a scheme to sell things to annoyingly cute couples, make single people sad, or give cynics a reason to smirk? What is Valentine's Day actually about? Well this year, I decided to do a little research to get to the bottom of it.

The holiday has evolved into a more modern form, where people buy chocolates and cards, and elementary school students exchange little handwritten love notes. Some even choose to shoot rifles, like the Penn State rifle club (a way to, how do you say? cope with being single on Valentine's Day. Really, whatever works. It still sounds like fun to me, I'm definitely going to try it out!)

Courtesy of dosavannah.com

You have all probably heard of St. Valentine, and you might be surprised by the fact that Valentine's Day is a little darker than it seems. Do you know who Saint Valentine really is? According to legend, there was an emperor in Rome that believed single men made better soldiers, so he outlawed marriage. St. Valentine, a believer in love and romance, continued to marry couples despite the decree made by the Roman emperor. But when St. Valentine was discovered, he was ordered to be put to death. He was executed on February 14th, and considered to be a martyr -- for love.

St. Valentine saw the injustice that was the decree, so he disobeyed orders in the name of love. And because of his actions and sacrifice, people still celebrate love and commitment to this day.


But in reality, even when you're single, love is still all about the connection you have with people. Whether this love is romantic or platonic, it's still important to remember that love has many forms, and Valentine's Day can be about any type of love. That can even mean taking this day to remember not to take your friends for granted, and to be grateful for the people you do have in your life.

St. Valentine
Courtesy of Google Trends 2016

When I got to college, I had a friend from high school who I thought would be in my life forever, but in a few short months I realized that true love cannot be forced. Just because you've been friends for a long time doesn't mean you'll be friends forever. Love can be disguised within a friendship that just isn't meant to be, but true love can manifest itself within new friendships.

So, this Valentine's Day, I challenge you to love your friends. Love your significant others, love your parents, love your siblings, love yourself. I challenge you to find a reason that justifies the sacrifice that St. Valentine made for everyone.

Courtesy of Wikimedia

Navigating the Sea of Suits

The spring career fair is coming up next week and it might be beneficial to go, even as freshmen. Although it may seem like chances to land an internship are slim, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised if you take the time to prepare and put in some effort once you get there. Although I personally am not looking for anything at the moment because I plan to take classes this summer, I went to the engineering career fair last week to get a sense of what the future holds. Through some eavesdropping, observation, and personal experimentation, I came away from the event with a few things to keep in mind for when I go again next year. 

Spring career fair at the BJC. Photo courtesy of Greg Grieco.

1. Resumes on Resumes on Resumes

One of the most important things to remember when going to an event like a career fair, is your resume. Not just to have it with you, but to make sure it looks the way you want it to. Everyone I spoke to asked for it, and I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit embarrassed handing it to them. Why? Well, because like a lot of things in my life, I put printing my resume off until the last minute. And once I looked at a printed copy, I realized just how much work it needed. That piece of paper is part of the first impression you make, so it's important to make it count. Take your time when crafting your resume, and make it a good reflection of all you've accomplished. Also, try to do something to make it interesting; something to separate it from the piles of resumes on recruiters' desks. I'm even thinking of pulling an Elle Woods and printing it on pink, scented paper. If she got in to law school with it, maybe I can get a job!

Student await their turn. Photo courtesy of Greg Grieco.

2. Dress Your Best

This is pretty simple to remember. You want to present yourself in the best way, and everyone at the career fair is going to be dressed to impress. You don't want to come under dressed because you will feel out of place, trust me. I definitely felt that way and I was in business casual.

Aside from how good everyone looked, one other thing I noticed is how professional a leather portfolio looks. You need to carry copies of your resume in something, so why not invest in a great accessory? It'll come in handy for years to come.

3. Introductions are Important

I wandered from table to table and did a good bit of eavesdropping before I approached anyone myself. What I gleamed from my observations of the people around me is that it's best to know what you want to say before it's your turn to speak to a recruiter. Being straightforward is a good way to get responses you need and a solid handshake (no dead fish!!!) makes everything official.

4. Take a Moment to Prepare

With so many companies attending the career fair, it can get pretty overwhelming. One thing that I plan to do before I go again, is to check out who's going to be there beforehand and formulate a plan of attack. If you know who you want to see, you can look at the map once you get there and be more efficient that way. The lines of students waiting to talk to companies can get pretty long and no one wants to spend all day walking aimlessly amid a sea of suits.

5. Be Yourself

You're a well rounded individual with accomplishments under your belt already. It's important to remember that when attending the career fair in order to be confident in yourself and your potential. Believe that you'll crush it, and you will.

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Head in the Clouds

One and a half years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. It was the summer before senior year and it finally dawned on me that it was time to start thinking seriously about my future. I had to start applying to colleges soon, but how could I do that if I didn't have a clue about what I wanted out of college? 

The thought struck me on my way home from St. Petersburg, Russia. It was a few days after my 17th birthday that my mom and I boarded our plane home, and I didn't sleep at all on the flight back. Instead, I watched a lot of movies and stared out the window. I watched us fly through clouds and saw the progression of time from thousands of feet above the ground. Eventually this thought struck me that wow, we were flying. When I realized the enormity of that fact, I started looking not at the clouds (although they are incredibly awesome), but the structure of the plane itself. I noticed the flaps on the wings (called ailerons), the engines, and more. I spent the last portion of the flight home in admiration of the plane itself.

Flying over Europe.

So when I sat down to research colleges, I narrowed my search to the ones that offered aerospace engineering as a major. And now, a year and some odd months later, here I am. A proud Penn Stater with hopes and dreams and a passion, something that I can't say I really had before. I was pretty aimless until I got here; unsure and afraid of college, adulthood, and the prospect of setting out on a path to some unknown career. But thanks to Penn State, I can wholeheartedly say that I've discovered  the person I hope to be and the impact I want to make on the world one day.

A blanket of clouds.

That might have been a little dramatic, but it's true. I came in not knowing anything about aerospace engineering other than it sounded very cool and sophisticated and it involved airplanes, but after one semester I've gotten to learn so much. I'm working with my Sailplane class (a flight vehicle design and fabrication course) to build a human powered airplane and I've just joined the Lunar Lion Team, a group of undergrads and grad students working to send a spacecraft to the moon. When I got the e-mail that my application to the team had been accepted, I was over the moon (cheesy pun intended). 

Now that I've had a taste of the kind of things I might be doing in the future, I'm excited. I am no longer unsure, but I'm not entirely unafraid. Of course I'm still scared of failure (math and physics is hard, man), but that's natural. And  in these past few months I've learned that it's possible for my new dreams to one day become a reality. I've seen hard work and passion pay off, as one girl in my Sailplane class is currently doing a 4 rotation co-op at NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA!!!). She posted a picture of her in the mission control room the other day, and it was epic.

So in the first semester I've learned a lot about myself and unearthed a passion for discovery that I wasn't consciously aware of a year ago. College is the place where I discovered my passion. It's a place to learn about yourself and others; a time to explore and discover new interests; an opportunity to get involved and grow your knowledge. In college we learn a multitude of things that help prepare us to face the future. 

And the future is a scary thing. So is space. I still want to go there, though.

Me, in the future.
Photo: pexel.com