yygs-ase 2017

I'm taking a brief hiatus from the Netflix theme as I use this platform as a journal

YYGS was the greatest experience of my life.  It was laughs and games of Spyfall over the tables in Trumbell dining hall; it was stolen moments waiting in line and in lecture; it was sitting in the grass with Jorge and our family group; it was nervous conversation with Gustavo as we awaited our admissions interviews—and the rest of our lives; it was inside jokes with Grace and Ashley; it was learning of Douglas's sugar addiction; it was struggling to carry a 24 pack of water on the long trek from Walgreens to Branford college entryway C; it was laughing over gifs we found that were relevant to our presentation on the feasibility of CNS prosthetics; it was a whole new world jammed into two short weeks.

I'll admit that on the first day, I hated it.  I felt like such a social misfit.  As the days went on, I found my social niche(s).  Everyone I talked to, I wanted to—yearned to, even—hear more about.  The genuine interest I saw everyone have in learning, in doing great things, in changing the world....it's unlike anything I've ever understood at home.

Not to mention the incredible cultural diversification.  YYGS is truly a GLOBAL program.  All around the world, people go through disparate and glaring hardships just to earn an education, yet, the commonplace issues I face on a daily basis—not enough sleep, college apps, friend issues—persisted as common threads between us (threads that reach from Germany, to China, to Brazil, to Canada, to the US, to Egypt, etc).

The program as a whole, not to be cliche, was truly life-changing, and overall, inspirational.  I arrived with my goal being to find direction in my life, and along the way, I found myself some lifelong friends. I realized that the latter is probably the best (and the most important) thing that's ever happened to me.