In this short interview style post, I answer some frequently asked questions! Read more about my favorite engineering memory/experience, my favorite extracurricular activity on campus, my favorite spots on campus, and my must have tool at Tufts. Happy reading!

It’s officially been one month of quarantine.

With COVID-19 shutting down schools all around the world, I packed up everything I knew in my tiny little dorm room to move back to Singapore. The quick move was a culture shock, and I wasn’t expecting it to be so hard to adjust back to “normal life” back at home (even though there was nothing normal about the situation all of us were in).

The first two weeks were the hardest because I had to self-quarantine in isolation. Although I was lucky to have my phone & my computer to call people, it never felt the same as being physically in the room holding a conversation with someone else. I was restless, and I wanted to leave the room. Above all, I missed my daily routine. Mentally, I knew I wasn’t holding up as well as I had hoped, so I began an online gratitude journal in hopes of staying afloat & spreading positivity. It was by far the best decision I made.

9:04AM: *Cue iPhone Alarm Radar Sound*... Snooze Count: 1

9:15AM: *Cue iPhone Alarm Radar Sound*... Snooze Count: 2

9:23AM: *Cue iPhone Alarm Radar Sound*... This time, I don’t snooze my alarm. I quietly sit up and enjoy the last extra minutes in my comfortable bed before rolling off and landing on my fuzzy grey carpet. Sighing, I contemplate the pros and cons of getting back into bed and sleeping for a little longer before accepting the fact that I will never be a morning person. The cons usually outweigh the pros, and I begin to get ready for the day.

I’ll be honest with you… coming back to Tufts for my second semester was tough. In fact, my first few weeks back on campus were beautifully painful in its own way.

Let me explain.

For a while, I’ve had this empty feeling in my chest. It feels like someone carved a hole in my heart and ripped out a piece of me. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it feels a little bit like hurt, pain, grief and longing for something to happen all jumbled up together in one big mess. I feel like there’s something wrong with me, and worst of all, I feel guilty for feeling this way.

For the longest time, I repressed this feeling. I decided to wear a mask and pretend this “hurt” I was experiencing was simply a symptom of moving overseas for a long time. More than ever, I refused to believe it was homesickness. I viewed homesickness as a sign of weakness; a sign that I wasn’t capable of being away from my parents, my home, my sister, or my friends; a sign that I wasn’t ready to leave the glory years of high school behind yet; a sign that I was not ready to grow up.

But, the more I hid my homesickness behind a smiling face, the more I tried to cover it up because I didn’t want to feel weak, the more it hurt. The hole in my chest only got bigger and bigger, and like all things on Earth when under immense pressure, I cracked.

November marks the beginning of the season of joy, celebration and reunion. As people gather around with family and friends around a table to celebrate Thanksgiving, we are reminded to pause, stop and look around at what we have in life. Thanksgiving inspires all of us to thoughtfully reflect and give thanks to the people, events and circumstances that have helped shape us.

As a first year, this will be my first Thanksgiving away from home, and by home, I mean Singapore (some 9,394 miles). While it’s definitely WAY too far for me to fly back home in the short span of 5 days, I’m thankful I have the opportunity to fly to California this year to escape some of Boston’s cold and reunite with family friends on the other side of the country. Although I won’t be drinking cider and enjoying turkey with gravy and mashed potatoes with my mom, my dad & my sister, I do want to continue a family tradition that we play every year around the dinner table: Thankful Thoughts.

The concept of the game is simple. There are 30 categories of words and sentence starters to choose from representing the 30 days in November. Growing up in a family of four, each of us used to take turns and say 7-8 things we were thankful for. This year, I’ve decided to put a spin on it and make a “Thankful Thoughts at Tufts” edition. I hope you enjoy it.

I twirl the puzzle piece in between my fingertips.

“It’s cool to be smart.”

The first five words that my Tufts Information Session Admissions Director, Patrick Gladstone, greeted me with in the summer of 2016.

I take a step back and watch, thinking of possible places where my puzzle piece would fit in the big picture.

On my campus tour around the school, that statement held true.

I overheard students passionately talking about topics from women’s rights to food branding. The campus was brewing with activity, and my tour guide, Allison (part of a dance crew that doesn’t know how to dance), added to the exciting atmosphere.

I put down the puzzle piece, interlocking it with its neighbors.

I knew I had to visit again.

When I was younger, I would spend exactly one week in the month of July participating in a summer camp. Whether it was a tennis camp, a hiking camp or an educational camp, the concept was all the same to me: move in, meet new friends, create memories, and leave with lifelong friendships.

As I got older, I had less and less time for summer camps. High school was busy, and my summers were filled with different experiences: work, internships, family travels, and preparing for standardized tests. While I understood the importance of those experiences, a part of me longed for my youthful summers where I didn’t have a single care in the world. I missed eating an unlimited amount of ice cream, singing songs around a campfire, and playing capture the flag in an open field.

During the summer after my high school graduation, I found myself in a limbo. I was no longer a high school student, but I was also not yet a college student. I was in an uncertain transitional phase where I didn’t really know who I was and where I was heading. I decided to spend my days working as a summer camp counselor. I hoped that it would help me rewind my days and relive my earliest experiences. It was never quite the same though, and right when I thought I would never get to experience those memories again, an opportunity opened up for me at Tufts University.

So here it goes… my Pre-Orientation experience.