Strange Sights Around Campus
Let it not be said that nothing crazy or exciting ever happens in Pasadena, the sleepier sister of the City of Angels. It is true that we do not have the glitzy glamour of Hollywood, nor are we in possession of the multitude of museums and parks and town squares that comes with the traffic of the downtown district. But we do have our own charms, quaint and unassuming as they may be. For example, the Rose Bowl Parade takes place on Colorado Blvd every year on January 1st, the same street where my friends and I venture to grab a bite of Thai food on the weekends. Before Beverly Hills, the stars of Hollywood bought houses on Arden Street, the street on whichthe Caltech Health Center and Counseling Office are currently located. And every once in a while, as I walk around the paths on Caltech’s main campus, I’ll see things like
The filming of the show “Silicon Valley”…
Fireworks set to music, a la Disneyland…
Bill Gates giving a talk…
Some of the smartest science and engineering students in the world utilizing their technology…
Bajillion-dollar gem collections that should really be put in museums…
The manifestations of the midnight hunger pangs of a senior physics majorand self-taught chef…
Homemade rope swings…
Students casually making mechanized wheelchairs for their collaboration projects with undergrads at the Pasadena Arts Center…
Examples of the truest roommate friendship there could possibly be…
A horse-drawn carriage hired for a wedding…
And really intricate objects printed by our 3D-printing lab…
Many different sights to showcase truly impressive collaborations with the outside world, as well as Techers having their silly, everyday fun! I love how college lets us experience both.
I think the biggest life moral I’ve learned from my time at Caltech is to embrace whatever magic–big or small, personal or worldly, formal or informal, planned or unplanned, practical or just darn cool–comes my way. Growing into adulthood contains a lot of paradoxes and dualities, and it is easy to get bogged down in change or to adapt to change so well that you lose part of yourself. But keeping an eye, always, on the bigger picture and taking the time to appreciate the good parts of both the mundane and the exciting are what, I’m starting to see, keeps life worth living, no matter what age you are.
Author’s note: Please excuse the sentimentality of this post. Like a lot of you who are reading this, I too am a senior, and feeling the years as I begin solidifying my plans for next year when I leave this school. I always feel that this last stretch is a good time to reflect on what impact the place I am leaving has left on me, and so here it begins with this post.
Second note: A friend once told me that Caltech ranks low on the scales of undergraduate happiness. Then she went off to MIT.
I won’t lie, you are in for a lot of hard work, so much work that words cannot adequately convey how much until you come here and see for yourself. But if you have been accepted, then you also have a backbone of stubbornness that secretly lines the heart of every Caltech undergrad.And Caltech will crush that stubbornness out of you. And that stubbornness will take the previous statement and make it your personal challenge until you conquer it in your own way.
Happiness at the California Institute of Technology isnot floofy, showy happinessfilled with material to post great new statuses on Facebook every other week. It is hard work and pursuing knowledge for the sake of knowledge and the benefit of humankind–oftentimes, not for a pretty grade. And happiness is the satisfaction of having arrived at an answer the honest way so that you know the process inside and out; the sweet sensation of standing on the third floor of your dance platform under the colorful laser lights, watching the sea of bobbing dancers, after many sleepless nights of construction with a group of people crazy and foolish enough to do it with you; and happiness is staying up until 8 a.m. with your best friend, who was your roommate in your freshman year and still remains your one unconditional friend to this day, catching up on life on the last day of term when you are both done with your exams and papers and can finally relax and vent out all the crazy that happened in the past 11 weeks. There are so many good parts of my Caltech experience as I look back on it, that I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Sentimentality out. Till next time,
Anita
