Farewell 2020

Goodbye, 2020. This year has been difficult for everyone in some way or form and I know this year hit some families harder than others. I've been reading some mottos online for 2020. I have yet to come across one that really speaks to me. 

2020 has changed life in so many ways. It's crazy to think about. I keep thinking about how quickly it all happened. The timing for me might have been even more important since my spring break had just begun when the pandemic hit. So life was almost sectioned off neatly into two parts: at school before spring break of my upper-year and at home ever since. But the changes have been rapid and drastic, almost like living a dystopian novel. I wear a mask wherever I go, and I don't think anyone has seen my face for nine months. I haven't even touched the jeans sitting in my drawer, or the blouses that I would wear to classes. I dodge people when I run outside or go on walks, an action that may have been regarded as rude before. Now, people actually appreciate it when you give them their own side of the sidewalk. Companies have responded to these lifestyle changes (or the ones that will survive have!) and I feel it when I browse on their websites. When I see clothing companies advertise more "loungewear" for instance, it almost confirms a reality that's too incredible to believe.

But now, we're about to say farewell to 2020. And it's during this time of year that people often set New Year's Resolutions. Frankly, I've never been very good about remembering mine because the goals are often too specific. I believe that this explains why for most people, New Year's Resolutions do pertain to just the "new year." Or the first three to four-ish months of the year. 

Yet during our last prefect meeting of the year, one of my remote prefectees from Seattle introduced her tactic to countering the forgetfulness associated with resolutions. Rather than picking one specific resolution, she picks a theme for the year. I'm inspired by her idea and I'd like to try that this year. In fact, I didn't even create a resolution last year because experience taught me I'd likely forget it! But I'm going to create a one-word theme this year to focus on. Seems a lot easier to remember than oddly specific goals. 

HOPE

That's my theme for 2021 and I'm going to try to stick with it. There's lots of good to come in 2021. It might not happen in the early half of the year, but I'm hopeful that it will eventually. Hope will get me through next year.  

Farewell, 2020!

The oak and the willow

 “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
― Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven

Quite symbolic of how I'm feeling right now. I sense the wind coming in my direction. I sense it pushing me over with an impulsive strength. Will I be the oak or the willow? I choose the willow, which means that I must keep myself afloat through these strenuous times. It will be OK. We will make it through. 

2030 by Dr. Mauro Guillén

Over Thanksgiving break (feels like a long time ago!), I read 2030 by Dr. Mauro Guillén from the Wharton School of Business. I think Guillén is one of the most innovative thinkers in this business world because he looks at business problems from a global lens. I took his Coursera course, called "Global Trends for Business and Society" after which, I just had to read his new book. 

Every time I pick up Guillén, I know I'm going to think about problems differently; he shifts my perspective. In 2030, Guillén focuses on what he calls "lateral thinking." Instead of thinking about problems as a trickle-down effect, he urges readers to see how one facet can relate to multiple problems, therefore, being laterally connected. 

Before reading 2030, I grappled with China's growing influence as an economic superpower. I realized that the problem in my thinking was that I failed to see that this was almost inexorable because of China's massive population. Not only that, but Guillén argues that in the next decade, the markets will considerably shift towards Asian consumer tastes. This arises from the fact that the middle classes in Asia are growing and the population is still relatively young. Naturally, if businesses are to profit, it would be prudent of them to shift their focus to the Asian markets. Perhaps this issue has become particularly prominent because of the US leadership in the last four years. Nonetheless, regardless of the policies Western countries may try to institute to protect commerce and business, a major problem still exists that may hinder all progress: demographic shifts that benefit the Asian market. 

I've also been challenged to think about aging populations. One statistic stuck out to me: the 60+ age group owns 80% of the wealth in the US and 55% globally yet only 1 in 7 companies properly targets this age group. Companies would benefit from creating products for this age group!

What also struck me was the fact that in the US today, there are 120 million people in the middle class – defined as a household making between $30k and $150k per year – and 121 middle people in the combined upper and working classes. There are more people on the extremes than in the middle. This is both an interesting and horrifying number. There seem to be many reasons for this, wealth inequality being one. But another problem is that there are fewer stable, high paying jobs in this country due to the emergence of the sharing economy. Consequently, millennials, defined as people born between 1980 to 1995, are having a hard time getting into the middle class because it's harder to secure those jobs. This is also contributing to the US's shrinking middle class, among other factors like higher divorce rates or putting off rites of passage like marriage. 

This brings me to the final point that really struck me from 2030. And it's that immigrants create an inexplicably positive impact on our economy. Immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. That's the common reason I've heard cited before, except it's so much more than that. Immigrants tend to be either high skills or low skills workers, meaning they're filling in the jobs that we need most. They also tend to have more children, keeping our fertility rates up. Compared to their native counterparts, immigrants tend to save more money and aspire to own houses, cars, and get married, all of which benefit the recipient country and its economy. I am curious as to how subsequent decades will be shaped by the behaviors of the children of immigrants. 

I could go on and on about Dr. Guillén's work. He is truly an inspirational writer and thinker. I find myself citing his work even in my classes. I give 2030 five stars. It will truly change the way you think about the world. 

18

This past week, I turned 18, a big year for obvious reasons like legally entering adulthood. I'm both excited and nervous for adulthood for the plethora of other new responsibilities that come with it.  

I'm one week into adulthood and the funny thing is I feel far from it, a testament to the adage that "age is just a number." I'm feeling that peculiar misalignment right now because, for example, I'm supposed to pay taxes as an adult. But at the same, I'm an "adult" who still can't drive (or even has a permit for that matter). I'm also an adult who still lives with my parents as a "student." And I'm an "adult" who hasn't earned any assets of my own. I seem to be taking on multiple identities at once; I'm legally something I don't feel. 

That train of questioning led me to think, what's up with age? Do experiences define age? Does having done a certain "bucket list" of items define adulthood? Sometimes I come across super mature students who are younger than me who speak, think, and act nothing like their age. I can't help but wonder why. Perhaps they've simply lived through more dynamic or nonlinear experiences. For example, some of my older friends say that a major breakup in a relationship can "add years and wisdom." Or, experiencing the loss of a loved one engenders wisdom and age too.

Regardless of what the law says, I still feel like a kid at heart because I know I haven't experienced enough. I thirst to know what holds beyond high school, both socially, career-wise, and academically. I feel I have a lot of exploring – of both myself and the world – to do and until I acquire knowledge on that front, I don't think I'll ever "feel" like an adult. To me, it's almost the accumulation of experiences that define age. And some people get there faster than others and that's okay. Nonetheless, I cannot wait for what's in store in the upcoming years of adulthood.

Senior Fall

Senior fall is a notorious term for high schoolers in the US. It's a time when students are both applying to colleges but also trying to manage likely the hardest combination of courses of their high school careers. This was certainly the case for me this past term. Nonetheless, I believe times of uncertainty, stress, and difficulty are the times that build the most character and the times when I've grown the most as a person. So while I'm relishing the last couple of days of Thanksgiving break, I'm also using this time to reflect upon what I've learned during this past, unprecedented term. 

The logistical aspects of this term have certainly challenged my scheduling skills as a student. Whereas in previous terms classes were taken during the day and homework completed that night, 8 PM classes have really disrupted this norm. I'm now used to saving work given from a night class for the morning. The notion of "saving work for tomorrow morning" was something I could not imagine myself doing before. While I'm not the person who feels they have to complete assignments as soon as they're posted, I'm still the kind of student who starts assignments well before they're due. Night classes required some adjusting from that tendency of mine and personal acceptance that sometimes I won't complete everything by the time I go to bed. And that's okay. 

Due to the limitations generated by the health pandemic, I've been forced to change the way I think about socializing. While Andover gave students the option to return to the campus in the fall, I chose to stay remote for the term. Many of my friends who returned to campus mentioned in classes that they felt it wasn't the same Andover, or that it wasn't the Andover "senior year experience" because of the socializing opportunities. In this sense, I suppose everyone was on the same boat in terms of reimaging socializing. For me, texting people was the primary way I communicated. If I saw something that reminded me of someone, I would reach out to them casually. Of course, this form of communication could never replace in-person or what once was.  But I think most students have managed to navigate these foreign waters in some shape or form. 

Finally, the last important thing I experienced as a student this term was a comeback. I think something a lot of students are used to is things coming easily and flowing smoothly. I can ascertain that until this term, I was one of those students. Comprehension came with inputting time. Executing a plan came with setting a schedule. But this past term, for the first time in my high school career, a lot of things did not flow smoothly. I was having trouble identifying grammar mistakes in French essays, even if I spent hours editing my paper. I was simply blind to those errors until my teacher circled them. I was also having trouble picking up topics in other subjects. While part of this is a result of taking on the hardest course load I've ever had at Andover, I think a great deal of this came from the fact that my head was in multiple spaces at once. At all times, I was thinking about school work, the pandemic, and college applications. And at the midterm, my performance in some classes wasn't in the best shape. Nonetheless, I managed to improve in all my classes in the second half of the term, my comeback. As cliché as it sounds, for the first time, I really experienced the adage "it's not over until it's over." More importantly, senior fall was a precursor of the fact that I'm really going to have to work for things I want in the future and that no, I shouldn't get used to things coming smoothly; accomplishing what I want is going to take hard work, grit, and perseverance.

I am grateful for this past term. Even though it's not socially what anyone anticipated, I've learned and grown in ways I don't think I would've had life been normal. My second to last term at Andover begins on Wednesday. I cannot wait for what's in store.  

Thanksgiving 2020

Even in trying times like 2020, there's something to be grateful for. While I've felt from a young age that the idea of having a day of thanks, namely Thanksgiving, withdraws from the fundamental value of practicing gratitude every day, in challenging times I believe that highlighting the things we appreciate becomes even more important. 2020 has changed the ways of life in both temporary and permanent manners for everyone and I think it's important for me to sit back and reflect on things I appreciate.

I'm grateful that I have a roof over my head and that generally speaking, my family is in good health. 

I'm grateful for the people who risk their lives going to work every day so that the risk they bear may benefit the community. 

I'm grateful for the front line workers in hospitals and medical facilities. I understand that many of these medical workers, nurses, and doctors entered the field with the noble life mission to save others' lives. And COVID has utterly defied what they believed was possible to do. I cannot imagine the stress that also comes with being in that position of making the tough phone call to family members. Thank you to these first-line responders. 

I'm grateful for my teachers and friends for their support this time when it's challenging to be a student. To my advisor in particular, who's been there for me every week and who's created a warm, inviting community amongst his advisees where we can laugh, have fun, and have deep conversations about our troubles.

I'm grateful to my parents as always. I've spent more time with them in the last eight-ish months than I have in the past three years because I've been learning remotely instead of boarding. I'm so grateful for our dinners every night, our walks around the neighborhood at night, and their support in my journey through college applications. 

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, wrote a powerful article in the New York Times yesterday called "The Losses We Share." The last sentence in her article resonated with me: "Are we OK? We will be." Perhaps this is a reminder of how we must approach not just the remainder of this year, but how we must persevere through a global recovery that could last years. But we will be OK. And I'm grateful for that light at the end of the tunnel. 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

The Queen's Gambit

It's quite uncharacteristic of me to watch television shows, mostly because I find that some shows drag on a little longer than I can maintain interest. But last night, I finished watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix and I think experienced what must be considered a paradigm shift in the way I understand TV shows, directing, and storytelling now. This is a MUST WATCH!! I would 100% recommend this show to everyone. 

-- spoiler alert! -- 

The Queen's Gambit is about an orphan, named Elizabeth (Beth) Harmon, who's a chess prodigy. And while this plot may seem simple (and the ending foreseeable), I have not been able to stop thinking about this show. What amazes me most is how directors Scott Frank and Allan Scott take this traditional game of chess and turn it into a whole new world in the show. They make this movie interesting through artistic, directorial choices. Otherwise, watching 7 episodes about…well, chess might come across as boring to most audiences. Through advertent storytelling decisions, Frank and Scott drive viewers to root so badly for Beth Harmon in her tournaments. I could feel her thoughts, envision them almost in my head. I felt her emotion seep through the screen. I could feel Harmon's frustrations, her fears, and the anxiety she was trying to hide in her matches against Soviet grandmasters, all of which were successfully portrayed by the talented Anya Taylor-Joy. 

Not only was the directing thoughtful, calculated, and well-executed, but the story itself was filled with symbolism. My heart reached out to Beth when she revisited the Methuen Home to find that Mr. Shaibel had never forgotten about her all those years or when she always bought two plane tickets everywhere, one for herself and the other for her deceased foster mother Alma. Additionally, the role of the tranquilizers Beth took throughout the show was unclear at first. Initially, I jumped to the conclusion that she needed to take the pills to visualize the chessboard and her previous games. But as the directors slowly reveal Beth's past, it became clear that these pills were a coping mechanism for trauma after her mother's suicide attempt. When she flushed the remaining pills down the toilet before her final match against World Champion Borgov, it symbolizes Beth overcoming the negativity that's shrouded her entire life since the car accident that left her an orphan. 

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This is the kind of show everyone should watch, particularly in 2020, a year full of crisis and trauma on a global scale. "The Queen's Gambit" is a feel-good show, through the tears and moments of frustration. It draws at the heartstrings of viewers and I personally found myself rallying for Beth in a way I haven't observed with many other movie characters. 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone around the world and while watching TV shows won't resolve the ongoing crises, at least it presents a source of momentary distraction and appreciation for this incredible work of film. I absolutely loved this series.

Résumé Virtues and Eulogy Virtues

A couple years back, I used to visit the site Medium frequently. It's an idea-sharing platform, almost like a news source with a blog-style take. I must be frank, I'd fallen out of the habit of checking Medium, but a few weeks ago, our class read an article from the site in EBI. I immediately reconnected with the feelings that attracted me the Medium in the first place after reading "Résumé Virtues, Eulogy Virtues, and the Impact of Small Moments". This article resonated greatly with me and I've been reflecting on it for some time now since EBI. 

In this article, Mike Sturm argues most people possess two sets of traits. For example, being a hard-worker, responsible, articulate, and intelligent are what Sturm calls "résumé virtues". They're the kinds of traits that employers want to see, but that you wouldn't necessarily highlight when introducing someone in a non-work setting. "Résumé" traits are also what many schools tend to breed in students these days through rewarding those who focus on perfecting their school work over other areas of their beings.

On the other hand, Sturm designates the second set of traits as "eulogy virtues". Possessing traits like charisma, emotional intelligence, resiliency, kindness, patience, and an optimistic character are, as the term suggests, traits you'd say in a eulogy. Sturm writes that in today's high-power, forward-thinking society, people are wrongly raised to focus almost exclusively on résumé traits. In turn, these soft skills or characteristics are inadvertently de-emphasized. And I couldn't agree with him more. 

For most of my academic career, I've believed in educating the whole person. I've always found character to be the thing that draws me most to people. When I say "character", I'm referring to what Sturm calls "eulogy virtues." I don't understand what it is about our education system, but too often it fails to reward those traits. Instead, the system rewards people for résumé virtues. People with strong résumé virtues often perform better in school and receive better job offers. They may be called the "alphas".

But I see the implications of this every day. When people don't feel they're rewarded for things like kindness or emotional intelligence, they don't spend time developing or reflecting upon those areas of themselves. This can people to be reluctant to help peers. Peers feel ultra-competitive, pushing themselves to the limits to oust everyone else from the performance picture. In the work environment, it pushes everyone to be extra critical of each other to the point where at some companies, I've read that it's normal for "team" meetings to lead to people crying. Where is it that we lost the ability to be constructive and kind? To be compassionate and hardworking. To be optimistic and data-driven. Where is it that we lost eulogy values? 

Perhaps it's even too general to denominate these as "eulogy" values because they're not just things that we should say when someone passes. "Eulogy virtues" touches upon the fundamentals of human character. Of personality. Of genuine goodness in people. And while a herd of people with strong résumé virtues may serve the economy relentlessly, we shouldn't lose sight of the value of a good human being. 

My cat turns 20!

My cat, Beibei, has been with me since day 1. Seriously. As my parents tell it, when they came home from the hospital with me, she didn't leave my side because she couldn't tell what I was! It shocks me somewhat to think about the life my cat has lived thus far. My cat was 2 years old when I came home. I'm leaving for college next fall and she's still here! She's made it to the twenties before me yet she's spent most of her life observing us, humans. Perhaps this explains her inexplicable intelligence. My family likes to say that "Beibei knows everything". She truly does. For example, when we talk about her in conversations, her tail begins to waver up and down as she picks out her name mid-sentence. Through the ups and downs, she's seen it all in this family. Happy 20th, Beibei. 

One of my favorite pictures of Beibei. She was only 2 years old here!

To celebrate Beibei's 20th, we bought a (human) cake

 

11/7: History is made

Today, the American people elected Joe Biden as the 46th President-elect of the United States of America. Kamala Harris, the Vice President-elect would be the first female Vice President in US history. Today, history was made. 

From the WSJ

The internet is bursting with this news. From podcasts to websites to commentary articles, everything seems to be focused on some aspect of this unprecedented, utterly important 2020 election. I particularly enjoyed this NYTimes article. Not only was the language smooth and energetic, but rather than reciting facts about the close election, the writers discussed the implications of Biden's win for the country. It successfully painted the importance of this election in American history. 

There's been a lot of posts circulating on social media too. Quite typical these days as most of my friends seem to getting their news from Instagram. From looking through people's stories, I've noticed a wide variety of posts being shared. This one from NPR's feed stuck out most to me. It's an utterly human moment for Kamala Harris. She's in workout clothes, on a walk-in nature. It provides a very human look into the life of the Vice President-elect, whom we otherwise rarely see in a professional setting. I love hearing Harris's laugh at the end. It's resonant and reveals her warm character. 

I don't think I can successfully do justice to what happened today in American history, which is why I shared these two posts from other media whom I believe has captured what I cannot put into words. All I can say is that nearly 150 million American people, the most in the entire history of US elections, have worked to have their voices heard in the middle of a global pandemic and it's the duty of both candidates to uphold our democracy.