Breakaway
2007-11-26 10:19 -
My Thanksgiving holiday has been an absolutely insane, but fun, mess. After Thanksgiving with a colleague from Three Rings, I flew out to BWI to have a reunion with my friends from CTY and the Alcove in Silver Spring, MD. I loved seeing people from my years that I’d kept in touch with but never been able to re-visit in the 4 years since my nomore year, as well as meeting people from different years (both on the older and younger ends of the spectrum). CTY still has, by far, the niftiest people that I have ever met in my life. Caltech is still similar (hence why I fell in love with it when deciding on colleges), but seems a little bit more bland by comparison.
It turned out that Friday night happened to be a They Might Be Giants concert at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C.; a bunch of people from the reunion were going and had extra tickets, so I went as well. My groin area really killed me for the standing up and bouncing up and down afterwards, but it was an awesome first concert experience, and the band rocked. I feel privileged to have heard them in person. Mmm, Birdhouse, The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas, and Istanbul .
Humza and his parents cooked delicious food for us during the reunion, and the house was filled with about a dozen awesome people. We played 1000 blank white cards, Egyptian ratscrew, (sadly no Scum: the Masquerade), and Taboo. Unfortunately, I had to dilate and missed out on a good deal of the fun, but still have no regrets whatsoever about having come out for the weekend.
Ken and I ended up dashing out the door at 9:50am this morning to make a 9:58 Washington Metro train, but it turns out that the red line was running late and we were all incredibly delayed. Fortunately, the airport shuttle bus was running every 20 minutes instead of every 40, so I made it to my gate with plenty of time to spare. Amazingly enough, I have not been held up a single time in security the past three flights I’ve taken – someone must have sent out a memo explaining what dilators are and demonstrating what they look like on the x-ray.
The BWI-LAS flight was very uneventful, and I managed to get a good deal of sleep as well as have some fascinating conversations with my seatmates (a pharmacist and a pilot not from Southwest). The interesting thing I’ve observed about Southwest’s new boarding procedures is that although I end up way farther back in the boarding order on average, the people ahead of me don’t necessarily care for the exit row seats I covet, so I end up getting my choice of good seats anyways. My initial skepticism is largely assuaged, and the new process is much faster because of the two-thread parallelization of lining up one side of the line while the other side boards.
I wasn’t able to book myself through to LAX using Rapid Rewards, and all the flights from LAS to LAX were oversold, so instead I planned on flying to Las Vegas and taking Megabus into Los Angeles for $43. Problem is, traffic was really bad (causing our bus to arrive late in Las Vegas, leave an hour late, and arrive somewhere around 3-4 hours late), but it was still better than the alternative of a night in Vegas or stuck on the East Coast given the number of errands around Caltech that needed to be done on Monday. The bus ended up pulling in around 1am, and I finally got home at 2.
On the plus side, I got to watch Flightplan on the bus. It was incredibly inspiring to see the strength, resourcefulness, and perseverance of Jodie Foster’s character. I want to both be able to take care of those I love, and to know that someone cares about me and will catch me when I stumble.
Switching gears, and on a more somber note:
I’ll spread my wings and I’ll learn how to fly
I’ll do what it takes til’ I touch the sky
And I’ll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And break awayOut of the darkness and into the sun
But I won’t forget all the ones that I love
I’ll take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And break awayThough it’s not easy to tell you goodbye
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And break awayOut of the darkness and into the sun
But I won’t forget the place I come from
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And break away
-Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway
I spent this past weekend reflecting a good deal about what I want for myself and for my friends and for my future family.
It really pains me to choose ‘either or’. I love Caltech, in so many ways – everyone I’ve met at Caltech has been like family to me. However, Caltech feels academically very claustrophobic to me, and I don’t think that there is room for me to experience personal and professional growth.
In a way, I feel like a survivor. I’ve been treading water and trying to re-establish my physical and emotional equilibrium now that the crisis is over, but now I feel ready to emerge from the cocoon and reach for new heights. I want to be independent instead of dependent upon other people.
I am coming back to the Bay Area in early January. It’s time to start looking at logistics, and figure out where I’ll be living once I know where I’m working.
I’ll be back at Caltech from time to time (probably every month or so). I do mean it when I say that I will miss Caltech, and leave a large portion of my heart here. However, I can’t hold myself back. Opportunity only knocks once – I can’t sit and wait for exciting things to come my way, I need to actively pursue them myself.
