rt7's blog

I haven’t posted in so long that when I typed sites.williams.edu into the searchbar, Ruth’s blog popped up before mine. I almost cried reading her entries. Last Monday—when we were all out on Resky Lawn tossing and laughing—seems so far away, in a distant time. It’s been a whirlwind of a week and I don’t think Weiwei leaving for six months has fully sunken in yet. Yes, I’ve cried everyday for the past three days, but I think it’ll hurt on a deeper level in a week or so when my brain finally accepts that this is the new reality. But not all is bad! I had (shitty) breakfast with Maysa and Desel, bonded with Tommy as he packed his things up, saw off Enoch, etc. I even had a multi-sentence conversation with 6’8″ Nate about packing tape so that was cool. I have to go now because I need to clean up my room, but I promise I’ll update more frequently now that I have time!

I’m taking figure skating for my winter study PE class and since it’s a chill class (as most winter study PE classes are) I haven’t really been taught much. All I’ve learnt so far is how to almost skate backwards and that I can’t balance on one foot for more than three seconds. My goal by the end of winter study is to be able to do an axel. Will keep you updated. My bigger, more philosophical goal is to figure out how to better balance things in my life before the actual semester kicks in and kicks my butt. Because my balance is bad, remember? I think it’s all a matter of figuring out what to prioritize when and developing an intuition for those decisions. Like right now, I just got unsick after a week. Obviously my #1 priority was to get better so I skipped classes and practice a bit, but looking back I could’ve used that time to learn more about app development, something I said I’d do but didn’t have the time for. Or did I need that complete rest—both physical and mental? Hopefully I get better at making these decisions and stop overthinking about my actions more as a result. I think my priority this week is to prepare for the Mid-Atlantic Warmup Tournament in Virginia that’s coming up this weekend, and start having fun again now that I’m not sick. Also, to start planning for our trip to NYC over dead week! I’ll tell you about it another time but I’m so excited. Anyways, that’s it for now. To tell you the truth, I’m not writing this at Goodrich but on my bed instead. I think I’ll start to be more flexible with where I’m writing from (although Goodrich would probably still be the most common place). It’s all about balance.

Bombed my math final but it’s okay, I never have to touch multivariable calc again. We’re in the homestretch(!!) but it doesn’t really feel like it. Maybe because there’s so much free time? Because I’m not stressing out even though I should be? Because I’m too distracted by other things(/people)? Anyways, as unreal as it seems, I’ve already spent 1/8th of my time here at Williams even though it still feels like the beginning. So much has happened in the past couple of months, and I hope that momentum continues post-Winter Break. See you then!

I renovated my room over Thanksgiving and it’s so much cozier now. The bed is by the window, and every morning you can see the snow. It might seem cold but there’s a heater wedged in between so it’s nothing but warm—as if you’re drinking hot chocolate by the fireplace with a blizzard outside in your sweater that Grandma knitted for you last Christmas. Last night was actually the first time I felt that, since that side of the bed was occupied by someone else until now. It was nice having the whole bed to myself, but I think I prefer the fuzzy warmth of a head snuggling up against my chest as we both fall asleep, entangled.

Winter warmly descended upon Willytown last Sunday, with a snowstorm stranding my friends on mountain roads high (they are back and alive). Leaving behind a clean slate of powdery white. It’s misleading though, since the semester isn’t over yet with an awkwardly short one week of classes and then finals still to come. A premature transition—reflecting our eagerness to get it over with? At least that’s the case for me. Instead of doing math, I built a snowman with some friends today. It looks more like a snowboob, but that’s okay because here at Williams we’re all about gender equality. I hope it’s still standing proudly erect tomorrow morning.

I’m thankful for a five day break from school, I’m thankful for getting to spend that time with someone special, I’m thankful for my host family offering Thanksgiving dinner, thankful for my family loving and supporting me, thankful for the opportunity to go to college in the States, thankful for my friends both old and new, thankful for Goodrich, thankful for snar, for 70, for Beph, for all, of this.

Waited half an hour for the Okinawa Brown Sugar Boba only to be turned away at the cashier. No problem, there’s the open CASO tab! Whoops, looks like that just ran out two persons ago too. I’m just trying to feed my family, Goodrich. But besides the gross negligence from the place this blog calls home, life’s been pretty good. I’ve been hovering around a stable 4 on the Weiwei Scale (1 is just-awakened; 10 is drunk) this week which is surprising since Co–Star’s been telling me that I’d have “Pressure in work“. Let’s hope the seismometer stays steady.

[Update] Everyone has left and I am quietly reading Confessions by Augustine and listening to Duke Ellington & John Coltrane and in this moment, everything seems to be at peace. In a sentimental mood I guess.

Just got out the warm comforts of Images Cinema, my mind swirling with Deep Thoughts, only to be hit by -7 ℃ and the realization that I have a 750 word paper due tomorrow that I haven’t started yet. It’s been an hour but my word count is still 7. I ate the remainder of Weiwei’s avocado and watched a sick Callahan video (Nick Lance’s) with Alan instead. Now they’re both working, singing and studying, respectively, so I should too, yet here I am updating my blog. Here’s to the life of Ritmo carrying me through the paper, and night.