oh, the people you meet!

i consider myself a pretty lucky woman. (i think i'm allowed to call myself a "woman" rather than a "girl" at this point, right? i'm definitely old enough.) harvey mudd college has not been the easiest of paths i could have taken, but in the past four years here, i've really gotten to find out all the great opportunities that were thrown at me. i won't go into detail of everything, but i'll fill you in on what happened spring 2007: i got a chance to study abroad in wellington, new zealand. those short five months changed my life. that fall, i came back to mudd raving about my experiences. and then i got to thinking...

the way study abroad works at mudd is a little peculiar. you pay the normal tuition, room and board, and any student fees to harvey mudd college during your absence. mudd then takes that money, pays your study abroad program, and gives you an allowance for air transportation to and from your destination. if you do not use the program's room and board option, mudd also factors in an allowance so you can survive somewhere else. sometimes, your program costs less than mudd. sometimes, much more. but the cool thing is, if you were to get any financial help from mudd (which is about 80% of the mudd population), the aid still applies to your program. 

i'd been receiving help from the mudd family, most notably, from ms. elise mudd marvin. when i got back that fall, i randomly ran into pat who works in the scholarships department and thanked her and asked her to thank my donor for the opportunity to go abroad. words spread and the next day, i was informed that i could actually thank ms. marvin in person. luck would have it that the office of development were visiting her the very next day and my proctor training schedule was empty that morning. she was very sick and could barely prop herself up, but i got a chance to tell this woman how a stranger has changed my life. i spoke mostly to her daughter since ms. marvin had no energy to speak, but after the conversation, i felt even luckier. i will never forget the words that her daughter said to me, because they made me feel very alive and damn proud of who i turned out to be.

anyway, enough of that story. flash forward to this semester. i am taking two media studies classes at pitzer college from the same professor. she's an academy award winning documentary filmmaker (re: broken rainbow) and just an all-around fascinating person. yesterday, we sat and had a chat after class. i had asked her to help me with my senior thesis (i'm trying to work on a documentary), so i wanted her to critique where my project works and where it doesn't. the conversation moved from my project to my life and my plans for after graduation. i am embarking on a four-month trip with my best friend around japan, vietnam, thailand, new zealand, and fiji, and i told her that i got hooked on traveling after studying overseas. i can't keep to one place, and i find any means possible to fund my travels, including recently selling my car and possibly more of my possessions in the near future. she got to hear of all the instances where i just decide to take a few days off and fly to visit friends, and it was really great that she was so understand. and then, out of curiosity, i asked her if she was at all related to the harvey mudd whom my school is named after (i call her professor mudd, if you couldn't already tell).

and yes, she is. she's actually his granddaughter. i know it's not that coincidental that i'm going to the claremont colleges and taking classes from a professor who's closely affiliated with the colleges. the crazy part is, part of my scholarship last year actually came out of a fund she and her siblings help set up in honor of their mother, and i had written this woman a "thank you" note before (i didn't realize this until she pointed it out)! i think it's great that the same woman who's making it possible for me to complete my education is the woman whom i admire for her work. needless to say, the conversation lasted much longer than planned, and i left feeling really, really wonderful.

who would have thunk? the first two years here consisted of me cursing the place and wanting to leave as soon as possible. i stuck it out (not too happily at first), and now, i've gotten to say "thank you" to the key players who've made a difference in my life and letting them know that they've done so. i'm not the smartest person you'll meet, but i'm really happy with the education i've gotten here. i didn't retain much from any of my math and science courses, but i think i fulfilled the last part of the hmc mission statement: i've definitely developed as a leader, and i can judge the impact of my actions on society.

new lapstop, courtesy of hmc

i am writing this post from my brand-new tablet pc. well, it's technically not mine, but it is for the next semester! thanks to an IBM matching gift program, barry olsan, and joseph vaughan and his team, harvey mudd college was able to receive eleven lenovo thinkpad tablet pcs to rent out for the semester. in exchange for the laptops, we have to agree to help the CIS department by providing feedback as to what works for future students, if they decide to take this out of the pilot program.

the laptop runs on vista, and i get really, really confused. i could manage my way around windows xp okay, but vista...wow! i'm a mac user, so this is going to be somewhat of a transition for me. i was surprised that my application even got approved. joseph wants to know our goals and intentions with using these laptops, and my statement was that the tablet would be very useful for my videos because i can actually draw things in my videos. i have a wacom tablet but i hardly ever used it because the sensors are very poor. so i am definitely very excited about this tablet pc!

seriously, though, since the day i arrived at mudd, i've felt that this institution really spoils its students. or maybe it's because mudd places a lot of trust in its students. i don't know where else would a student be allowed to "rent" out a laptop, do whatever with it, and doesn't have to sign tons and tons of liability paperwork (all i had to do was give the CIS department my name). i'm not complaining because it really makes me appreciate mudd that much more.

it's been a while, huh?

i'm back on campus to start my last semester of college. woohoo! things have been a little overwhelming, but that's normal adjusting from the slow summer life to the fast-paced college life. this semester, i don't have any classes at mudd so it makes me feel a little weird being on campus but not venturing into the academic side at all, maybe just to visit some professors and staff members.

my summer was great! i got an internship with a video production place, so i got to test out my media studies major. the internship was in texas, but my boss was super familiar with the claremont colleges. i think it's surprising that more and more people are familiar with claremont and its colleges, which is great, because this means more open doors. before i got to mudd about four years ago, it was really hard for me to explain to people where i was going. "what? you're going to a community college?" was the general inquiry i received. harvey mudd college is a very rigorous institution, but it was still pretty unknown to the masses, even if they only lived ten minutes down the street in upland (yes, i've ran into people in the surrounding areas who have never even heard of claremont). now, instead of always answering, "i got to a small private college in southern california," i will sometimes say "harvey mudd college" to see if people actually have heard of it.

although i'm hesitant about being back for an extra semester of college, i'm sure this semester will fly by quickly, and i'll be left wishing i were back at mudd. i'm going to be spending the majority of this semester figuring out what to do with my life in the next few years post-graduation, so i've decided on a very light load to help me ease into the transition period. i think these next few months will be a little frightening and super exciting!