The Current Adventures of Ye

In which I try to put my thoughts into words, my days into pages, and my life into a website.

[kevinye]

Pachanelly Canon - Gentleman's Rule

This is a pretty awesome mash-up and a cappella arrangement. I really like the lead singer's voice.

I wonder how strange it was to go around the city pretending to be a wedding party...

[kevinye]

Commencement Speech - John Legend

I probably should have looked for a video version of John Legend's Commencement speech before I made my earlier post.

A transcript is great and all, but nothing beats watching John Legend deliver his speech in person...or, in this case, watching a video of John Legend delivering his speech in person.

So yeah, because I think the video is better, I'm going to make two posts about John Legend's Commencement speech.

Enjoy the video!

[kevinye]

farewell Harnwell!

I may have set a personal move-out time record this year.

Having fallen asleep the night before due to sheer exhaustion from Commencement day, I woke up at around 6 in the morning to start packing up my room. Given the sheer amount of stuff I've accumulated over the past four years and my lack of containers to hold everything in, it was a minor miracle that I was able to move everything out by the noon deadline.

I'm always so grateful for my friends whenever it comes time for me to move. All I have to do is ask for help, and without fail, a small army of people will show up to help me load and carry all of my belongings. It would have taken at least an additional 3 - 4 hours of hard work and sweat to do everything myself, but with the help of my friends, I was able to get all of my stuff moved to my new place in a little under an hour. Their help also saved me from having to pay the exorbitantly high fines for not moving out by the deadline, which I definitely appreciated as well.

It's a shame that move-out was so rushed though. Having lived in Harnwell for the past two years, I feel like I should have had a brief moment of reflection with my packed-up room before I had to leave the building forever, but there just wasn't enough time. I vacated my room in a hurry to meet the move-out deadline, and I didn't get a chance to look back at what will most likely be the last school housing I will ever call home.

It's really not that big a deal, but it still would have been nice to get that sense of closure for this period of my life.

Given that I also had a flight to catch the next morning, I didn't have time to unpack everything after I moved into my new place either, so I just decided to leave everything in a gigantic unorganized pile until I got back to Penn for summer courses.

For now, I'm back in Tennessee to rest and be with my family for a week.

Even though it's going to be short, this is a much needed break. Maybe I'll finally be able to catch up on everything...

[kevinye]

All in on Love

Love your self, love your work, love the people around you. Dare to love those who are different from you, no matter where they're from, what they look like, and who they love...

For those who are interested, here's a transcript of the speech that John Legend gave at Penn's Commencement.

I thought it was quite good, and I'm quite happy that we had him as our guest speaker.

"Pursue this life of love with focus and passion and ambition and courage. Give it your all. And that will be your path to true success."

[kevinye]

graduation!

I graduated!

Once Penn sends over the actual documents in a few months, I will be the proud holder of degrees from both The Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences!

Damn.

Time really flew by.

It's hard to believe that this stage of my life is already almost over. Has it really been four years? It feels like just yesterday I was packing up all of my stuff to make the move to Philly. It also doesn't seem long ago that I was making my very first blog post on tumblr because I wanted to document all of my college life memories.

I still haven't felt any real emotion over graduating, but I guess that could be due to the fact that my mind is having trouble processing what this means for me moving forward. I can't even believe that so much time has passed by already, let alone fully internalize the fact that I will be leaving Penn and college life for good.

Maybe I'll be hit with emotion once I'm done with summer classes.

Regardless, Commencement and the Engineering graduation ceremony were both very memorable.

Commencement had all of the pomp and ceremony that I expected out of such an important occasion, and having John Legend as the Commencement speaker seemed incredibly appropriate given that this is Penn's Year of Sound. Not only does he have the hottest song in the country right now, but he also graduated from Penn!

My favorite part of Commencement was definitely the conferral of degrees. Each of Penn's deans stood up and individually presented the graduation candidates for his/her respective school, and each presentation came with a sentimental blurb about the impact that each crop of students would have on the world. The formality of it all really made me feel like we were being officially sent forth into the post-college world to do amazing things, and standing up for the school(s) that you're affiliated with felt like something out of Hogwarts. I'll be honest and say that I did feel a little bit of pride when my schools were called. :)

The Engineering graduation happened right after commencement. In contrast to the ceremonies for Wharton and for all of Penn, the Engineering ceremony was smaller and more informal. Our Dean gave an unabashed no-frills speech about the importance of staying in touch and giving back to the Engineering school, and to be honest, I really appreciated his candor. Unlike the other graduation ceremonies I attended, there were lots of cheers and clapping for each student as he/she walked across the stage, and the atmosphere got steadily more and more relaxed/casual as the ceremony went on. Even though the Engineering graduation felt less professional that that for Wharton or Penn, it seemed incredibly fitting given our personalities.

One downside to the Engineering graduation was that the name calling wasn't terribly efficient, meaning we had to sit out on the field for longer than we expected. In addition, the weather couldn't make up its mind, so my face got pretty sun burnt in the first half of the ceremony and then it looked like it was going to rain on us in the second half.

All that being said though, it was a good day. Long and exhausting, but definitely memorable.

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I graduated...

[kevinye]

joining the Wharton alumni club

What are people supposed to feel at graduations?

Sadness? Excitement? Happiness?

To be honest, I haven't felt any kind of strong emotion about graduation at all.

It's probably because I technically still have to finish one summer session's worth of classes before I'm officially done with Penn, so it's not really going to be my last day here until July.

Regardless, the Wharton commencement was nice.

I always knew Finance was the most popular concentration in Wharton, but I guess I never realized how popular it was.

It seemed like at least half of our graduating class concentrated in Finance. XD

The faculty speaker was also excellent. I've never heard Lady Gaga lyrics interpreted as sage business/life advice before.

One graduation ceremony down, two more to go!

[kevinye]

breaking the hiatus

Damn...it's been a long time since I've been on here.

Sigh. I guess now I can't say that I've posted something every single day since I started on tumblr all those years ago.

I know that if I'm super technical about it, I don't always post daily, but to my credit, I don't think I've had a hiatus longer than a few days before this most recent one, and I usually write extra blog posts to make up for any absences I do incur.

This most recent hiatus is definitely the longest break I've had from tumblr though, and I think it really speaks to just how swamped I was this semester.

Two and a half months of no posting? I'm actually a little bit shocked when I think about it.

Yeah...this semester was pretty rough. I knew taking 8 classes wouldn't be a cakewalk, but I really didn't realize just how difficult it would be. There was always so much going on, and there never seemed to be enough time to do everything. Almost all of the work I turned in this semester was mediocre quality at best, and it took all of my energy just to stay afloat in my classes.

Ah well. Honestly, at this point, the grades really don't matter too much to me. I'm just happy that I was able to pass everything and be cleared for graduation.

I'm still a bit frustrated with how this semester turned out though. I really wanted my last semester at Penn to be a triumphant exit from college, one where I had fun, got good grades, and just ended my college career on a high note.

...that didn't happen.

It's even more frustrating when I realize that some of my grades were brought down solely because my attendance/participation throughout the semester was so bad. With the number of classes I was taking, I just didn't see any way I could show up to everything and still have enough time to complete everything that was due, and it frustrates me that I would have gotten good grades in some of these classes except for the fact that I didn't have the time to show up to every lecture/recitation.

This semester also sucked because it felt like my regular life got put on hold as well. I stopped blogging, I stopped Yelping, I didn't have time to draw or make music, and I didn't even sweep my room for a whole month! My room remained pretty clean and organized by most people's standards, but the fact that I put my weekly dusting/sweeping ritual on hold just felt wrong...

I will say that this semester wasn't entirely bad. Although I will remember this semester as the most difficult one academically, I think I will also consider this semester as the most fun and memorable one as well. Since this was the last semester I'd get to hang out with a lot of my friends at Penn, there were just a lot of significant and meaningful memories made that I will definitely cherish for the rest of my life. Once all of this graduation stuff dies down and as soon I've got a little bit more free time on my hands, I think I'll start writing catch-up posts about all of the big events that happened in the past 2 - 3 months.

All that being said, with all of its ups and downs, the semester is officially over. In a little less than five hours, I'll be walking in the first of three graduation ceremonies over the next two days. It's crazy how quickly time flies by.

I technically still have two classes I need to take over the summer to fully graduate from Wharton, but come Monday, I will have officially graduated from Penn!

I should probably get some sleep before the ceremony...

How typical of me. Staying up late and not getting nearly enough sleep before important school-related events. -.-

[kevinye]

How Wolves Change Rivers - George Monbiot

Everything sounds more dramatic when the narrator is British.

Pretty interesting video on trophic cascades and how introducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park ended up changing the geography of the region.

[kevinye]

It's a pretty long read, but this article/blog post makes some keen and detailed observations about Frozen that can really make you rethink your perception of the movie.

You honestly don't even need to have an opinion on feminism or Frozen to learn something interesting from this piece. The author points out a lot of details and general trends in other Disney films that you've probably never noticed before.

Definitely worth giving a read-through.

[kevinye]

When Love Arrives - Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye

When love arrives

Say, "Welcome, make yourself comfortable."

If love leaves

Ask her to leave the door open behind her

Turn off the music

Listen to the quiet

Whisper

"Thank you for stopping by."

[kevinye]

1985 Breckenridge Ski Ballet

WHY IN THE WORLD IS THIS NOT A THING ANYMORE?

SERIOUSLY, JUST LOOK AT THAT TWISTING FLIP!

It's just mind-boggling to think that this actually used to be a demonstration sport at the Olympics.

I'm so impressed right now.

[kevinye]

Beatboxing in Slow Motion - Smarter Every Day

This will be my Valentine's Day gift to everyone.

A slow motion video of a dude's moist lips fluttering in the wind.

Haha. Just kidding.

...but not really.

This video is still pretty cool though.

You learn some really interesting things about how beatboxing actually works.

[activemindspenn]

During my sophomore year at Penn, I tried to kill myself by swallowing a bottle of Wellbutrin. I spent 4 days in the hospital.

Penn’s response? – Sending some administrator to see me in the hospital (HUP). The first and only thing that she said was, “Are we going to make this an annual pattern?”…

[kevinye]

Although I feel fortunate that I haven't experienced the negative effects of Penn's culture to the extent that this person has, a lot of the points he/she makes are sadly true.

With the pervasive influence of Wharton, Penn has arguably the most stressful pre-professional environment in the Ivy League. While this highly developed "work success" culture offers a lot of unique resource and recruiting benefits to Penn students, it also creates an unparalleled breeding ground for stress and feelings of inadequacy.

Penn's culture has a huge effect on the mental health of the students here, and in light of recent events, I definitely agree that this is something that needs to be addressed.

[kevinye]

harbingers

For some reason, I always thought that "harbinger" was supposed to be spelled as "harbringer."

It was brought to my attention today that this is not correct.

WHAT.

"Harbringers" just makes so much more sense to me...

"Harbringers" = "Bringers of Har"

...

...or something silly like that.

A "harbringer" of light brings the first light. That sorta makes sense, right?

Sigh. I can't believe I've been wrong about this word my entire life.

It's a good thing I really don't use it that often.

Still just kicking myself internally though.

[activemindspenn]

Sharing Vulnerability and Vision | Research says around 19 out of 20 suicide attempts fail, Jack is one of the 19.

Here’s a story not many people know: a Korean freshman tried to kill himself in his Quad dorm room. Twice. He vividly remembers every detail of the incident, but does not remember...

[kevinye]

Just a powerful testament of God's love and the importance of mental health in college.

I can't even imagine the amount of courage it takes to admit something like this publicly, and the fact that he is doing all of this to help others who suffer from these struggles is truly inspirational.

This guy goes to my church.

Go God. :)

[kevinye]

College Sophomore's Death Ruled Suicide

College sophomore Elvis Hatcher died on Tuesday. He was 18.

RIP Elvis Hatcher.

I did not know you, but your passing marks the fourth tragedy our campus has experienced since Winter Break.

Ever since the suicide of Madison Holleran a few weeks ago, mental health has become a prevalent issue here at Penn, and I hope more people take advantage of the services that the school offers before it's too late.

This campus needs prayer.

[kevinye]

Why Chinese Families Don't Say "I Love You"

“I love you” might be one of the most important combinations of three words in the English language. It’s the signal that a romantic relationship is serious, an indication of closeness for a sibling, parent, or child, and a constant refrain for pop songs.

Intriguing article on a cultural phenomenon that I didn't even notice until a few years ago.

I honestly can't ever recall hearing these words uttered in my family, and to be honest, I'm not sure I would even want to hear them spoken aloud at all.

As the article states, hearing/saying "I Love You" just seems like it would be embarrassing for everyone...

But still...I wonder what it feels like...