The pace of change is fickle. Sometimes it comes quickly, like boom-pop whiplash. Sometimes it comes in waves, crashing and dangerously beautiful. Sometimes it is slow, and you don’t notice it until you look back and realize you do not recognize the person you were three years ago. Yet you resonate with the one you were 10 years ago more and more as time passes.
Now that I am a senior, I must think: about postgrad, traveling postgrad, balling, vibing, maybe taking a slightly different path in life than the ones around me. This summer was one of many crises and epiphanies. In the winter, my foundation shade was N3 and my concealer shade was slightly too dark for me. My sister got me the Glossier skin tint in December, for my birthday, and it turned me orange. Now it is a shade too light, and my winter shades make me look ghostly. This has not happened in eight years.
I had spent this past summer break working right off campus, at the Plant Ecosystem Lab’s PLEDGE Facility. Being part of cultural organizations for almost the entirety of my college career has made me good at memorizing acronyms, so I can tell you what it stands for: Pastures and Lawns Enhanced Diversity Global-change Experimental (PLEDGE) Facility. I did not just lie, and I did not copy and paste that from Weebly. The facility is a field with 30 lawn-plots with three different types of lawns, so I spent a lot of time out in the sun doing manual labor. It wasn’t pretty work, and I now have nasty tan lines from it, but the pain feels like a mark of accomplishment instead of shame. It made me realize that I like manual labor when it:
- is outdoors, and
- makes me feel like i’m serving a greater purpose, and
- is paid.
It made me realize that perhaps the answer isn’t going straight into a 9-5 office job after graduation, and maybe there are other ways to get by while enjoying myself before grad school. Maybe I’ll move back down South and fix up my grandmother’s house. Maybe I’ll travel across the country while writing and selling clothes. Maybe I’ll hitchhike across New Zealand and see the sheep pastures there. Who knows! And isn’t that the joy of living?
(As long as I’m employed through it all, of course.)
Rui Zheng
President
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