Why 2023 Was My Most Transformative Year (+Let’s Chat/Reconnect)

My big changes this year include:

• Reading a lot more books for pleasure 
• Writing (Creative Nonfiction)
• Spending more time on Cello, Journaling, Biking
• Cultivating friendships, both old & new
• Thinking about my career, impact, and meaning

Reading

I finally admitted to myself this year that my screen addiction was impairing my life, and I wanted to find some analog hobbies to curb my screen usage. (I’ve gotten a lot of value out of Reddit and YouTube, but I’ve gone way past the point of diminishing returns.) Luckily, my mom has been imploring me all throughout college to read more for pleasure, so I decided to do that. 

Because of my interest in the social sciences, I still prefer nonfiction (I’m a Political Science major, after all), but I’ve found a lot of value in exercising my fiction-reading muscles again. Reading fiction is hard, y’all!! I slow down a lot when reading novels and short stories, but they have been very helpful in showing me how the craft of writing fiction is different from writing nonfiction, and this has given me a lot of inspiration for my own nonfiction writing. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO → Please recommend me books !

I’m looking for:

• Memoirs by interesting people (e.g. “Speak, Memory”; “The Glass Castle”)
• Creative nonfiction/essay collections
• Social science books: about political issues rather than electoral politics, sociology, behavioral psychology, economics (for a beginner)
• Any book with interesting ideas or claims about society (within reason, please. No conspiracy theories)
• 21st century fiction: novels & short stories
• Any long articles about interesting contemporary issues (journalism)

Writing Creative Nonfiction

One of my biggest fears going into college was that it would feel like 4 years of just consuming information. A lot of Stanford students combat this by working on an honors thesis project to generate something of their own. I chose to write a collection of personal essays, i.e. creative nonfiction.

Some people ask me: isn’t “creative nonfiction” a contradiction?? This genre does not mean we lie about things; rather, I describe it as writing about events that really happened while emphasizing the subjectivity of our perspective.

My honors project has been extremely rewarding and also challenging. The essays span lots of different topics, but all of them heavily discuss music that I love – mainly hip hop and classical music. Sorry, you won’t get to read these anytime soon, but I hope to submit individual essays to publications in the next few months. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO → If you have experience or knowledge about submitting long prose works to literary journals or magazines, I would love to chat with you.

Cello, Journaling, Biking

I am practicing for a senior cello recital at the end of the school year! I have also loved playing chamber music again through a Stanford class (chamber music is my true love, because you get more of a spotlight than in orchestra but the music is not as technically difficult as solo music – HAHA). Playing solo and in ensembles has really reawakened my love for classical music. 

The takeaway: in the past, when I was not as good at managing time, I was afraid of spending significant time on things I “couldn’t write on my resume,” including playing cello. But now, I cherish the pure joy I get from playing cello and challenging myself with milestones like a solo recital. And actually, having more commitments can make me more disciplined.

I’ve been journaling since 2nd grade. If you don’t do it already, do it. Honestly one of the most fun hobbies you can do, and it’s free, too.

Biking has been an amazing hobby for me to take up at Stanford, and it’s helped me fully appreciate the beauty of Stanford and California. There’s nothing like zipping through nature while blasting Frank Ocean in the early mornings or at 11pm when you need some alone time to unwind and think. I hope to keep exploring weird, obscure parts of Stanford and the surrounding areas by biking.

Friendships

Especially as I near graduation, I’ve been more intentional about connecting with people and maintaining friendships. In the past, I thought just texting and making FaceTime calls were enough, but I learned this year that in-person conversations are truly the best. 

I really loved my Thanksgiving trip to New York City to catch up with old friends, and I loved spending time with friends at Stanford, too! I have a pretty liberal definition of friends, so if you are my friend, thank you, because you make life great.

WHAT YOU CAN DO → If we haven’t chatted in a while, let’s catch up. If you want to chat for any other reason, feel free to sign up!!

Career, impact, meaning

I’m graduating in June 2024, meaning I’m finally done with 16th grade. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO → I’m looking for a job (haha).

I’m interested in any work related to law, policy, politics, writing, research, editing, communications, and publishing. I’m open to working in any urban/suburban area in the US – I like adventures and I’ve moved around a lot anyway. I’m also open to locations in the UK and South Korea. If you have any leads, please email me.

Final thoughts:

If you know me, you know I really value the media I consume. Here are some essays, albums, and movies I found insightful this year and would like to recommend to you.

Essays

• What If Jobs Are Not The Solution, But The Problem? (aeon.co magazine, 2016)
  • If you read nothing else, please read this essay.
• Martin Scorsese: I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain. (New York Times, 2019)
• (Content warning: domestic violence) Kelly Sundberg, “It Will Look Like A Sunset” (Guernica Magazine, 2014)
  • I can only dream of writing essays that are this haunting and incisive. Every time I remember this essay, I have to reread the entire work. 
• Sally Rooney, “Even If You Beat Me” (The Dublin Review, 2015)
• Molly McCully Brown, “The Broken Country: On Disability and Desire” (Virginia Quarterly Review, 2020) 
• Poem – Ocean Vuong, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” (2014)
  • I first read this poem in 2017, and I have not been able to forget it since.

Albums

• Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On
• Radiohead: OK Computer
• Usher: Confessions
• Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
• Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life
• Songs by Kali Uchis, Steve Lacy, Bjork, Danny Brown, Metro Boomin, NewJeans

Movies (please look up content warnings on your own)

• Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance)
• The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy)
• First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
• Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
• Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
• The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Finally: the most breathtaking experience of 2023 was flying in a hot air balloon in Cappadocia, Turkey.