Jessica Zhang - Stanford University
College is seductive. Nowhere on earth will you find more opportunities to save the world, to make a difference, to devote your energy and passion to the creation of excellence. And somewhere amidst the email flyers and meeting notices is the illusion that one can do it all. The limitless possibilities presented to me during my freshmen year gave me that impression, and being the impressionable, curious, ambitious, I-juggled-ten-extracurriculars-in-high-school freshman that I was, I took the bait.
Before I knew it, I was on the mailing lists of probably a hundred student groups. I went to meetings and imagined myself being a dedicated member of all of the organizations I frequented. Before long, I realized I didn’t have time for anything.
I learned, during my freshmen year, to choose, and more specifically, to choose what not to undertake. Cooking and martial arts were appealing, theoretically, but unless I was willing to put in the time and effort to become good at these activities (i.e. practice in my spare time), I realized that there was no point. There are too many opportunities for learning and involvement in college that to squander time on something I was only mildly curious about would have been poor use of my time.
Having said that, however, my biggest challenge is still learning to cope with the omni-present time deficit. Twenty-four hours is not enough time to go to class, do homework, send reply emails, check up on writers who promised to have the articles in three hours ago, attend club meetings, plan events, socialize with friends, and sleep. My time at Stanford seems to have been spent rushing from one meeting to the next, from one class to another, from one function to another event.
And I’ve loved every second of it. The secret, I’ve learned, to dealing with college’s seductive nature is not to have it all, but to give it your all. There is nothing greater than the satisfaction of knowing that an event you planned couldn’t have gone smoother, that a conversation had at 4 am (at the cost of sleeping) is one that you will remember for the rest of your life, and that the grade on a paper reflected how much you enjoyed writing it.
In many cases, sleep is the trade-off. But when it enables you to go to China for a week to hear former President Bush speak on Sino-US relations, when it allows you to layout the perfect features page for tomorrow’s newspaper, when it helps to foster a friendship with someone you would have never met had it not been for Stanford, it becomes crystal clear why the trade off is worth it.
I am leaving for China tomorrow for a weeklong conference in Beijing entitled “On Common Ground” with a Stanford-led student organization called FACES (Forum for American Chinese Exchange at Stanford). Notable speakers at the conference include former President Bush and governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and topics to be covered include security issues, trade relations, and sustainable development. I’m excited for the opportunity to learn about the issues that are shaping present-day international relations. If doing so forces me to miss a few hours of sleep, I don’t think I will regret it one bit.
-Jessica Zhang
Stanford University
Class of '08