It’s only been five weeks into fall semester, but this past month has already been absolutely nuts. Classes are definitely tough, but as a junior, I’ve finally moved to the more “elective” part of my coursework where I can take classes that genuinely fit my narrower interests. For example, I’m taking a super rad biomechanics class where we study strain and stress on muscle joints, a cadaver anatomy class at Keck, and a course on global innovation through USC’s iPodia program (Jose wrote a fantastic post about it here). I’ve continued to be involved with ultimate Frisbee, working in my research lab, and volunteering with kids’ sports teams, but have also been in the process of starting a volunteer organization at Dr. Astrid Heger’s Violence Intervention Program at LAC, as well as producing/co-hosting the Viterbi Voices podcast (listen here!). Throwing in navigating the whole internship and job process, I can safely say that the last five weeks have been pretty crazy.
HOWEVER, while it’s very easy to dwell on the stress and negatives of junior year, I wanted to take this post to focus on what’s been getting me through it all. If you asked me what my favorite thing about being a student at USC is, my answer would be simple: the people.
Over the last two years, I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with some truly incredible people. Everyone talks about staying up till 4 in the morning talking with friends freshman year, but the reality of college is that those conversations still happen, and honestly, you never stop meeting cool individuals. Just this past week, I met some amazing freshmen while interviewing them for the Viterbi podcast, met some new ultimate players at intramurals, caught up with friends from high school, and ran into several people from my freshman dorm. There are weeks when I will genuinely dedicate an hour and a half to just chatting and catching up with people because that is truly what fulfills me. I think what I’ve realized in college is that not only is your experience dependent on what you do, and what you as an individual make of it, but also who you choose to surround yourself with. There’s some study out there that says your personality is a composite of the five people you spend the most time with, and at USC, I can safely say my five people do some of the craziest, coolest things with their time, and inspire me every day.
USC is a really diverse campus filled with a lot of amazing resources and organizations and ways to spend your time. I think one of the components that gets overlooked is USC itself, namely the diverse, talented students that populate every single school here. I’ve found communities in Viterbi, in my pre-med endeavors, in my random foray into entrepreneurship, and the conversations I have with those people have truly allowed me to develop as a scholar and a person. USC is diverse as a school in terms of people’s backgrounds, origins, socioeconomic levels and opinions, but most of all, we have this crazy mesh of passions. It is that diversity that makes me proud to be here as a Trojan.
This post honestly came out a lot cheesier than I expected, but if you meet me in person, I swear, talking to people and getting to know their stories is one of my absolute favorite things to do. I’m passionate about a lot of things, but one of the things I value most is thought-provoking conversation, and I guess I just got lucky that USC is filled with thoughtful, intriguing people.
That’s all I got, peace out + fight on!!
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