step 1

As I have slowly settled into a somewhat steady rhythm here on MIT’s campus, I still often get asked by upperclassmen and family back home about the acclimation process. The answer I usually give goes something like this, “The workload is decently manageable so far, but maybe that’s only because the semester is just kicking off. I’ve made a sizeable amount of friends, and I’m eating well, too.” And that’s the truth, which is somewhat anticlimactic, maybe? Everyone expects some big change to happen since the transition into college life is supposed to be one of the most drastic ones we’ll ever experience, right? Yet, everything seems so normal. Right now, I could take a look around my life, sigh, and nod, before telling myself: “Yes, this is exactly what it’s supposed to be.” There’s something in my brain, or maybe in my heart that tugs at me though, the idea that I should be FEELING something more, something… SOMETHING. But no, everything is peaceful and everything is calm, and it doesn’t feel like a storm is coming either. I guess, that’s just the way it’ll be. 

an apology and some more

Okay, so I have a confession to make.

This summer I heavily encouraged my friend Doodle to start her own blog.

And she's been doing so well. Yet, her last post was at the same time as my previous post, June 28th. Today is July 20. AND I FEEL SO BAD for only having just read it now. 

Like c'mon Jerry, you're the one who supported them with this endeavor, how could you not have checked their page for over three weeks???!?! 

I wonder how many times she has thought about telling me, but bit her tongue to wait until I noticed cuz that's the type of person she strikes me to be. Hmm, or maybe not? She has been pretty busy these days. Okay, I'm just making excuses. Damn, and I wonder how many people she has shared her blog with. WHAT IF I'M THE ONLY READER... 

Sorry Doodle. I'll try to atone in some way. 

Also, I have all these drafts of blogs that I was going to write about. All half-baked products, unfit for the world's eyes. But who am I to say what the world wants to see? 

I'm the writer so I have some power of what gets put out there, right? With so much content being churned out, constantly, it's both sublime and tragic that gems will get buried under mountains of media, but the mountains themselves are quite the phenom themselves, aren't they? 

They say there are two sides to any matter. Is that really true? 

It's a fun little game to always try to see the other side. 

Let's see... Your freshly made McFlurry just went splat on the ground. That sucks, doesn't it? Your hard-earned money just went to waste. But your health will thank you? Or the ecosystem that inhabits the ground where it splattered will thank you? You've nourished billions of tiny less-than-microscopic bacteria, and they'll thank you? Ehhhh do bacteria even eat McFlurries? I've probably gone too far but you get the point. 

By the time you reach some kind of positive conclusion, you've forgotten all about the initial pangs of pain and sadness, and emptiness in your hands and stomach. And then they strike again. Sigh.

See you tomorrow, world. 

 My journey on SPEED

Speed typing is one of my favorite pastimes. It consists of typing out the displayed prompt as fast as you can while making sure you minimize your mistakes because otherwise, you’ll have to go back to correct them before the program lets you continue. Typing speed is calculated through WPM or words per minute where each word is approximated to be around five or six characters. I feel like some strategies I’ve gained from practicing speed typing can also be applied to other aspects of life as well. 

I’ll give you some context first. I first started to get a sense of typing back when I was in elementary school. Back when I first started, I was still struggling to type without looking at the keys and was using only my two index fingers, my WPM was probably around 20. 

It took me about a year to be able to type most things without looking down at the keyboard. Just this change brought up my WPM to about 70 when I was in seventh grade which was my mom’s record too when I had her try it out. The idea is that you should always maximize your resources, be resourceful. Think about what you can use to help you instead of just going in blindly through trial and error. 

The next big breakthrough was in 9th grade, this is around the time when I first passed 100 WPM. The idea is that instead of typing each word letter by letter, you should type them in short bursts of several characters at once. Especially, since certain phrases are very common such as prefixes and suffixes like pre-, dis-, uni-, re-, -tion, -ity, -ment, -ness. By familiarizing yourself with common occurrences and practicing how to deal with them quickly and effectively is key to becoming better, not just in typing, but also in whatever you do.

Another idea is that typing fast doesn’t just come down to how fast your fingers move, but also your accuracy. I’ve noticed that when I try to focus exclusively on speed, my accuracy tends to falter which leads to, ironically, even slower finishing times. Keeping this in mind has helped me maintain composure when under time pressure which has helped me many times outside of typing as well. This is also what helped me break the wall of 110 WPM. 

A recent breakthrough that I’ve noticed came from reading ahead. When you’re typing and you’re about to finish a line, you already need to be reading ahead to the next three words so that your fingers don’t stop typing while your brain is trying to process the next words. This is much easier said than done since you need to train yourself to type the words a couple of hundred milliseconds after you read them instead of instantly which actually helps your speed. The lesson we can take away from this is to always think a couple steps ahead since your immediate reaction won’t be nearly as fast or good as a planned one. Applying this strategy is what boosted my speed even higher which makes my record a whopping 148 WPM.

Of course, the higher you get, the harder it’ll be to improve. Although my record is in the 140s, my typical average speed is probably around 105 WPM. However, the key is to never stop improving since consistent practice is always necessary and the improvements are there even if they’re not noticeable in the short term.

 Where I'm From

I am from blackboards and numbers,

From the white chalky dust and the squeaky expo markers.

I am from the university’s natural science libraries and the chemistry department’s offices,

From the single-player games I dominated and the entertainment I invented during solitude.

I am from 365 days of daily blog posts,

From the satisfying click-clacking sounds of my mechanical keyboard.

I am from round metal chopsticks and large tempered-glass lazy Susans,

From spicy Chinese reganmian and freshly made piping-hot tostones.

I am from my father’s collection of ties and my mom’s shoelace tying technique,

From my friends’ deepening voices and changing interests.

I am from the English I write at school,

the Spanish I shout during sports,

and the Mandarin I speak at home.

I am from the smell of sunshine of my grandma’s laundry,

From the scent of dirt and nature of my dad’s garden on the balcony.

I am from the magenta flowers that bloomed around my piano professor’s fence,

From the intricate classical pieces that I have been trained to dissect and analyze.

I am from a family of nomadic learners,

From questions that blossom out of seemingly ordinary phenomena.

I am from my experiences and all the people who contribute to them,

From a life that I would not exchange for the world. 

 Stoic

Free-verse Poem

Phlegmatic.

That’s a word which I believe suits me quite well.

It’s nice,

Sometimes.

In trouble, you seem calm. 

Through trials, you bring composure. 

It’s a wonderful quality, truly, one which I value.

Yet, sometimes people yearn for some emotion

They yearn for a reaction and spend time and effort to procure one

Let’s say, for instance,

A surprise party!

Festive occasion, is it not?

Friends and family organizing behind the scenes…

All for what?

Just for a snapshot of time in hopes to capture your confusion-turned-felicity.

The moment never arrives. 

Sorry.

 Today, my friend flew

"It was not the type of way I wanted to fly." That's what my friend Dino had to say about his experience. 

We were walking back to our traditional Japanese Airbnb and we stopped by our favorite konbini store, 7-Eleven. 

I finally got the chance to have my friends try the amazing frozen chocolate banana chunks that they have and they certainly did not disappoint. 

Oh also, we tried the make-your-own smoothie cups where you just get a cup of frozen fruit and put it into their blender and it serves it for you in your own cup. I bet that I could down the whole thing in 5 seconds. They didn't believe. So, I did it in 3.5 😁

On the way back, we saw a playground. Good urban planning, I'd say. Psi started sprinting toward the swing set, gaining momentum pretty fast, and swinging pretty high. 

I finally caught up to him and gave him a couple big pushes to the point where he was airborne for a solid 2 seconds before completing the pendulum motion downward. 

Then, Dino also got on a swing and started his slow ascent. I decided to help him. Dino is a bit smaller than Psi, so my pushes gave him more height than they did for Psi earlier. He was literally flying and falling with every back and forth. Yet, despite his expertise as an actual pilot (yes, he can actually man a plane by himself), he got scared of the height and let go at the bottom, his bottom hitting the sand first. 

I took one look at his bemused expression and began laughing hysterically. I couldn't stop for a solid minute or two before helping him get up. 

Dino made me pay for his meals for the next two days.

 The mystery of muscle memory

Muscle memory is an extremely interesting phenomenon for me. As a pianist, I’ve always been amazed at how my fingers would engage in a tango with each other as the harmonious melody was sewn from the percussion that I had previously learned. There is a saying that goes like "thousands of hours of practice for a few minutes of the spotlight". This is especially true for musicians. 

A piece or a song can only be executed perfectly after hundreds of repetitions, and this is after you originally learn just the notes of the composition. I have some friends who are excellent at sight-reading and can play a song as long as they have the score in front of them, but since this is just like reading a book, it’s hard to memorize every word in exact order even though you can read it out loud well the first time.

I can memorize my pieces after many repetitions, and after I learn them well, I no longer need the original score to play it. However, it’s not like I can remember exactly which is the next note after a certain one. The only thing I remember is the melody, and my muscle memory does the rest. My hands somehow just know exactly where to place themselves after every chord. For me, it’s as similar to an out-of-body experience as you can get. Watching my hands prance around in sync without my consciously thinking about the next things to play, it’s marvelous. 

Yet, sometimes your muscle memory fails you. I remember I was attempting to play a song that I’d learned at a friend’s house when my hands suddenly stumbled. They lost their place and couldn’t find their way back, like a chugging locomotive that had veered off course due to one missing piece of track.

The environment and your thoughts also affect you as well. Sometimes I get back home to my familiar piano that I’ve learned all my pieces on, and once again, my fingers spring back into action like their knowledge of the piece was suddenly thawed by the warmth of familiarity. There are also times when I’m trying really hard to remember what’s next, and it just doesn’t appear. However, when I’m not thinking about it at all, they somehow know the place they’re supposed to be at the time that’s just right.

This is a topic that most people probably don’t think about all the time since it happens mostly unconsciously, so if you just keep it in the back of your mind during your daily tasks, you might find magic happening right in front of your eyes.

They're not contacts...

All the way through elementary school I wore glasses. My signature look was with these orange square-framed glasses and my mom still occasionally pulls some out of the depths of her photo gallery to remind me of what I was like when I was little. However, this would’ve made it a bit more difficult for me to play sports since there’s always a fear of breaking them upon a hard impact with the ball. Thus, we were on the lookout for other ways to fix my vision. 

We explored some other options first but eventually, there came a day when my parents learned about the existence of orthokeratology, or ortho-k for short. Ortho-K involves the use of specialized and custom-fitted contact lenses that one wears to sleep which temporarily reshapes the cornea to improve vision. Essentially, myopic people have their eye shape distorted when compared to those with perfect vision and this deformation is what causes their impaired sight. These ortho-k lenses basically serve to squish/mold your eye back into the proper shape to restore vision. 

As you can probably imagine, this squishing will not cure myopia. It only temporarily relieves the condition but as soon as you stop wearing it, the effect will wear off as your eye springs back into its natural position. Typically, to have near-perfect vision for a day, I’d have to wear it for around 7–8 hours the night before in order for the effect to last that long. There comes a problem though, sometimes at night I simply fall asleep instantly and forget to wear them. In doing so, I’m essentially depriving myself of proper vision for the next day and every waking blurry moment is one where I’m reminded of the consequences of my actions (or better said, inaction) the night prior. 

People who know me from back in elementary school would sometimes randomly ask, “Hey, I see you’re not wearing glasses anymore… Did you switch to contacts?” And most of the time I’m too lazy to actually explain why they’re not contacts because then I’d have to get into the entire process behind it and even the science sometimes so it’s simply not worth it if I have something more urgent on my hands. In another case, if I forgot to wear it the previous night, I’d have to wander through my next day without being able to see what most teachers write on the board and the worst thing is when teachers call on you to read something and you just can’t see it so you have to ask them to zoom in, zoom in, zoom in a bit more… However, that doesn’t happen too often because I can get through most of my classes without ever needing to look at the board by asking my classmates beside me or by just attentively listening to the teacher. After all, they always repeat what’s already on the board. 

But if it comes to a scenario where I’m forced to admit I can’t see, somehow they always know to hit me with that “Can’t you see? You need to get some glasses.” Ouch. And once again to not have to take up class time to go through the entire process of orthokeratology, I’ve learned to simply smile and nod to hope it glides over. 

So, now you know why “They’re not contacts”. 

 Boxed Thinking

It seems that nowadays we often have our thoughts enclosed within a certain plane of consciousness. Perhaps consciousness isn’t the right word to use.

Novel ideas. I’ve always had a debate on whether or not a combination of two pre-existing ideas is considered something novel. Bread and cheese, grilled cheese. Novel? Perhaps. 

But deep inside us, we’re always striving for something big. Something TRULY novel. Not just some merger of two other ones. A real invention. And then we think. We think and think and think some more after we’re tired of thinking. But why does it seem like it’s harder to think of something when there are no limits to our ideas?

Right now, I am aboard a shinkansen bullet train going at over 170 mph towards Kyoto, our next destination. On the last train ride, I had this exact page open on my word document, yet I didn’t write anything. I just couldn’t think of anything more to write about regarding this idea. Ironic, isn’t it?

There’s been a friend I’ve been getting really fond of lately. Let’s call her Doodle. I gave Doodle my blog a few weeks back and as she’s been reading it and discussing it with me, she suddenly had the thought of starting one herself. I heavily encouraged it.

Currently, she has one post. Earlier today, Doodle told me that she was shy with her writing. I wonder why, because from chatting with her, I know she’s full of funny ideas and super entertaining to talk with. Even if we just copy pasted our text conversations into blog format, I think it would still be entertaining to read.

Doodle said that my writing was “so eloquent and smooth”, yet I find that quite surprising considering how I never do any edits to my writing. Everything you see is my raw first edition. It’s a stream of consciousness because I usually do each post in one sitting, just typing away. Our thoughts go all over the place all the time, so how could it possibly be smooth?

I just had a thought. What if we imagine ideas to be these rough, uneven rocks. The more they run around in our heads, the more they flop around in the washing machine that is our mind, the smoother and more refined they become. Smooth stones skip further than rough ones.

Mmm, not always. You see when it comes to skipping rocks, besides picking a good stone, there is also technique in the motion itself. There needs to be enough spin on the rock when you flick your wrist at the release point to glide across and the angle at which the stone enters the water should be roughly 20 degrees above the horizontal for optimal skipping distance.

What I’m trying to get at is that ideas are a starting point. Good ideas alone won’t get you very far though. Yet, executing a poor idea well can yield fruitless results as well. Only good ideas paired with proper execution can go the distance. 

 A Bittersweet Venture

The idea that a person learns better when there’s someone else nearby is one that I’ve been a firm believer in. I felt like this was the perfect time to write about this topic and my personal experience with it since a similar one was just brought up by our teacher today in class. 

Our teacher talked about the zone of proximal development (ZPD) which refers to the difference between the tasks a learner can complete without assistance and the ones they can reach with guidance from someone more skilled. Tasks within the ZPD are optimal for a learner to grow in that subject area since they are neither difficult enough to completely stump the learner nor too simple such that the learner is not getting any value after putting time in. 

If you were to think about it in terms of a figure, you’d have 3 concentric circles like the one attached below, and my goal when I’m tutoring my students is to explain and break down enough concepts that when we reach the problem sets, I’ve expanded their green circle enough so that it covers all the topics and skills that appear in the problems. 

It’s quite a bittersweet job. Being a tutor, your ultimate goal should be to guide a student to the point where they no longer need you. On one hand, I really like teaching students who pick up the materials fast, but those kinds of kids are also the ones who stick around for the least amount of time. Tutoring a student who learns things a bit slower is more of a long-term project, yet the gratification you get when those kids come up to you with a wide grin on their faces is just unmatched. 

To keep your place as a tutor, you must have things left to teach. This truth has acted as motivation for me to keep venturing into unfamiliar territories in front of my students, in order to double back and guide them later. You learn to remember each realization you have while learning the new material, and try to inch your students toward those understandings when you instruct them. Seeing the lightbulb inside your student’s mind suddenly flickering on when the gears lock into place is another one of the joys that just drives me to keep tutoring and helping as many as I can reach.