Freshman year at Harvard

By Grace Wang, 2001 OCA Youth Leadership Award winner 

	Greetings from Harvard!  I am sorry that I cannot be with you all at the annual OCA banquet tonight, but as this is being read, I am in the midst of finals.

	But, finals are only a short, intensely painful part of my college experience.  What else have I been up to lately?  (Everyone seems to want to know.)  This semester, I took advanced inorganic chemistry, Chinese, expository writing, and psychology 1152r.  (Expository writing is the required freshman writing course.  Psych 1152r is an undergraduate and graduate lab seminar course where we conduct experiments in order to learn more about primate vocal communication.)  To offset my 29 hours of class, section and lab, I play piano and viola for the Harvard Pops Orchestra and am an active member in the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship. 
	
	I could describe my first semester of college in the same way that many other college students describe their first semesters: fun, academically challenging, fast-paced, etc., but those descriptions are applicable to any college experience.  Instead, I want to share with you all several things I have learned since I started studying here in freezing-cold Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	
	1)  If the menu says "stir-fry" or "fried rice," it's a lie!  Don't eat it!  Nothing, not even Harvard's forty-thousand dollar tuition can produce anything even close to Mom's homecooking.  Fried rice is NOT leftover minute rice with brown food coloring!  It is not scientifically possible to produce stir-fry in an oven!
	
	2)  Chinese is awesome!  I remember the days when I used to run away whenever my parents told me that it was time to go to Chinese school.  Not anymore.  Chinese is my favorite class and  is taught by AMAZING faculty members.  (Zheige xueqi wo kaishi xue zhongwen...)
	
	3)  There a lot of people in college who are very talented.  One of my best friends here was on the U.S. Physics Olympiad Team.  The girl who lives across the hall is none other than Julie Chu, a member of the 2002 U.S. Women's Olympic Hockey Team.  Another girl here won the national science fair.  (Wow.)  As Professor Peter Gomes said in his opening week sermon, "How many Harvard students does it take to screw in a light bulb?" (pause)  "None.  Harvard students don't need light bulbs-they glow in the dark!"  
	
	4)  Back to earth.  The work always gets done.  One expected, but still surprising, aspect of college was the concept of deadlines.  Not just any type of deadline, but multiple deadlines that were really close together.  An hourly on Monday?  A paper due Tuesday?  A presentation on Wednesday?  A quiz on Thursday?  At times, this became very overwhelming, especially since I wasn't a procrastinator and was used to having everything done well in advance.  But, taking everything one day at a time makes it possible to get everything done!
	
	5)   All things worthwhile do not come easily.  Some of the people here aspire to become the president of the United States.  Some want to become professors and do research.  Others, like me, want to enter the field of medicine and save lives.  Still, others want to enter the Peace Corps.  All these aspirations require hard work in order to achieve them, whether this means taking on an extra class during the semester, studying hard and sleeping little, or getting up for those early morning classes.
	
	6)  And, last of all, college is a LOT of fun!  Sure, I have a lot more work in college, but it is offset by the excitement of making friends with those who share my interests, having debates over meals, coffee at 1 a.m. while I'm still writing my paper, coffee at 2 a.m. while I'm still writing, coffee at 3 a.m. when I STILL haven't finished writing...
	
	7)  Before it was Ramen.  At last year's OCA banquet, I mentioned that I would be living on Ramen noodles for the rest of my natural life in order to pay off my college and medical school tuition.  Yet, I have discovered that Easy Mac is comparably inexpensive and ALSO includes 9 essential vitamins and minerals!

	As I close, I want to congratulate this year's OCA Youth Leadership Award recipients-you've come a LONG way!  To the OCA organization itself, thank you for encouraging young Asian Americans to succeed!  Best wishes to everyone in the New Year!  Thank you.