RAYS OF SUNSHINE.

“For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice.” ― T.S. Eliot @Mahabalipuram with my father. The bandages are from the fight-or-flight incident mentioned below. Never bunker dive or run away screaming from wild monkeys into gardens walled by stone.  This year has been a trying one, but I am so grateful for how much I've grown emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. I questioned and hardened my core beliefs and values, which were tried beyond their limits. This year marked many firsts and surprises for me. I quit school--stepping away from an institution most revere-- to examine what brought me there in the first place. I found that many situations were of the "right place, wrong time" variety or even  the "wrong place, wrong time", with only time illuminating the difference. My favorite meal in Hyderabad. Paneer Tikka Masala Dosa, South Indian filter coffee, and mango ice cream. 

AMRITA SAIGAL  On my fifth birthday, we had only been in the United States for barely 2 and half months. Our big party for me was an undertaking, inviting all the Indian families in the apartment complex and friends of my father’s from work. There were only a few kids, and they were all a few years older than me, and palling around with my brother while I struggled to blow out my reigniting candles for the wishes, not for the act of wishing, not realizing my deepest desires were just about to come true. After my party, my parents packed me and my brother up in the car. We headed to the “nice” suburban part of town, where the apartment complexes turned into two-story colonials, and every tree hummed with the energy of summer birdsongs. We turned into the parking lot of one Ranjani Saigal, a classical Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) teacher recommended by one of the family’s new Amreekan friends. And though it started out as dance, the four within their Saigal clan have taught me

me with the stata sign in 2014 So, let's recap on where I was last on this blog: hopeful, going into my interview, which went incredibly well last Wednesday. Now, in the interim, my temp agency got me a short-term, data-entry gig at no other place than   MIT Admissions . me in 2010, pre-graduation from Burlington High School I feel like I am living in a sitcom right now. How can I portray HOW ridiculously full circle this opportunity was? My tenuous, pre-frosh connections to MIT include: my dance teacher who worked here for about 6 years her kids are alumni ( '10. '13 ) now, and were the accomplished family friends to whom my parents always looked to for inspiration and comparison signing up, and never making it to Splash! after CTY every summer… sorry, MIT!  MIT SAT prep classes performing/practicing at Kresge multiple times volunteering for MITHAS  OBSESSING over MIT blogs, especially Mollie  & Jess Kim  circa 2006-2008 hanging in Central

JFK's old sailboat that he'd take out on Hyannis weekends. x3 Finally, I am at a point in my personal independence that I could decide to take my morning for myself and spend it at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Anyone who has known me knows my longstanding  obsession  with JFK, this library, and his Bostonian background. But this was the first time I had been back there since I was twelve years old! And reading "Elusive Hero" with my  legend ary coke. (October 2014)  Spending good time reflecting on my life and the man who was so bold he looked illness&death in his life as part of his christian struggle. A man so amazing he followed his family's history yet reimagined their life. A true leader. Someone who was the everyman and christ incarnate for this country. My fave president. #jfk (September 2013)  Just seeing his sailboat and this site, right next to UMass Boston, relaxed me so much. Reading Chris Matthews' "Elu

When I hastily bought my SAJA ticket and booked my flight on a lunch break at work, I had no idea what I had signed up for. I am actively avoiding being desperate in my jobhunt and trying to play to my strengths and how others view my strengths (since I'm such a harsh self-critic !). Seeing what skills people routinely endorse you for on LinkedIn is a good indicator of where you fall professionally and how your network views you. For me, the top 10 relevant skills are blogging, social media, event-planning, leadership development, PR, education, research, and advocacy. While professionally I have pursued and am pursuing the sweet spot of connecting this variegated skill sets, I have never pitched my sailboat of writing out my safe harbor, but I have been yearing for a venture into the moors of freelancing and professional journalism. So, on a bleary Saturday at dawn, I took the leap, giddy and nervous. I took the bus, questioning if this was technically gate-crashing since I

typography break while applying. lyrics from Weight of Living II by Bastille Self-reflection. It's something we as a people tend to save for later. Saved for the gaps in the rat race that is school and career. Saved for the comma in the sentence, the opportunity to breathe, granted once every few years. Saved for the pauses while we wait anxiously for life to press play again. As Cory mentioned, half-birthdays are a good point to reflect on the road you're on, as you keep on running, but what about those unintended stabs of self reflection we've all seen dozens of times? Those questions that probe on our common experiences as humans, but also make you think about your life journey and how you got to here. That's right, the friendly little password reminder! Since I am on the job hunt, I have been making account after account on different employer websites, and I am usually in such a hurry to just get on and submit the cover letter I spent the last hour perf

So, for all the people wondering "what are you up to? Wait are you still in grad school?" In November last year, I stepped back from my graduate program. Long story short, it just was not the right time. I realized there is a lot I want to figure out about myself and the best career path for me before committing to a graduate program I am not sure about. One of the biggest challenges was realizing I have multiple passions and instead of wholeheartedly pursuing them all during my senior year of my undergraduate career, I picked only two (education and science journalism. Oh, Annenberg! The road not taken!) and chose to bide my time in graduate school. Instead of trying to work and applying for many different and difficult advocacy positions or trying Americorps, I chose to pretend to know what I wanted. I chose to leave the job search for next year. Now, I realize there are quite a few tracks that I am not only qualified for but have unique insight towards. And that it is

You know that first-day-clean-slate-feeling every new school year as a kid? That feeling that no matter what is going to happen, you will have your friends, you will have lunch to look forward to, and new teachers and new adventures to be had during recess. The familiar routine, revived and renewed. I feel that when I see this empty page on my screen. Waiting for my thoughts. Waiting for my meandering views on whatever comes my way. I can't really explain the calm that envelopes me as I first dip my fingers in, checking the temperature of the water before diving deep. Deep into the terrifying abyss that sometimes is my mind. It feels so good to want to write again. These past few months, I had been feeling the absence of sense. That apathy is more crippling than anything. Instead of every sensory feeling translated into swarths of words, like birds that yearn for release, they beat against me like a rock-- I was unwavering, unrelenting. Paralyzed. Suddenly, I felt passive rath