I did it! I've tossed my hat (literally...and metaphorically) and I'm ready to head into the 'real world'! Sorry for the super silence around the blog for the past month. I've spent the few weeks either stressed out of my mind, sweating on horribly timed hot Boston days, or trying to regain some energy after burning through the end of the year. On graduation day itself, I was so exhausted from the heat and running around that I could barely savor the moment. Thankfully someone from my family kept tossing my camera around and we were able to get plenty of different shots of the whole fiasco. I chose just three for now (trust me, you don't want to see the whole album..theres maybe 500 at least!). The first image, with the cameras and the 2013 banner in the background, I think represents a lot about our time, what it means to 'live an event', and the use of photography as a means not only to document  realities but also as a means of capturing pride. Thanks to my dad for snapping that one - along with the thousands of other parents who were bunched around!

This second image I think captures a lot about Harvard and what these past four years have meant to me as an institution and a place of learning. The high beams, the richly vibrant banner flags, the old traditional vows to "Veritas" or "truth", and the honest reality that the resources I've had access to have 'suspended' me to much higher places I could have ever imagined.

And this last photograph needs little explanation. When it comes down to it, graduation was important because it was more than just an individual celebration. Time and time again I found myself fully embraced in the arms of my man, my friends, my family -- all of us saying, "We did it!" I can't even begin to imagine what my life would have been without the people I hold so close to me; to photography - I'm so grateful you can capture that pride. 

Graduation Countdown || #2 || My Spring Bucket List Update

As I mentioned earlier here, I kicked off my senior spring wanting to try a variety of activities that I have yet to explore on campus before graduating. Ideally, I wanted to do 99 things in the 99 days remaining until graduation. Now, that number has dropped to just 60 days! Gasp! Well, I still have a lot of work to do but I was pleasantly surprised with everything I was able to do over just the past couple months especially. Here is the visual proof below, and my brief notes about each one afterwards!

1. Go on a spring break trip - went to Florida with my girls!

2. Dance in Ghungroo Performance (South East Asian dance show on campus)  - danced in the senior segment!

3. Sled down Harvard yard steps - thanks to Hurricane Nemo, I went down Memorial Hall steps on a dining hall tray!

4. Attend Celebration of Black Women (campus event organized by the Black Men's Forum at Harvard) - went for the first time, got a rose and a special note! 

5. Go to the Holi Festival (cultural Indian/Hindi festival including dancing and the throwing of colored powder) - got purple, pink, and yellow in my eyes, mouth, and hair...and I loved it!

6. Deliver letters on Housing Day (a Harvard tradition where freshman are randomly selected into one of 12 upperclass houses) - chanted until my throat was sore and ran like never before in the yard!

7. Go out dancing in Boston! - went two times already with my girls to a dance club in Boston!

8. Attend an IOP Forum (generally high-profile individuals who come to speak at the Harvard Kennedy School of Govt.) - went to go hear actor Sean Penn and former prime-minister of Haiti, Michelle Pierre-Louis, discuss Haiti 3 years after the earthquake

9. Try a new food place in the Square - a few days ago I finally tried Clover, an entirely vegan restaurant just across the street from my old freshman dorm. The rosemary fries are perhaps the best fries I've ever tasted!

GRADUATION COUNTDOWN BUCKET LIST || NEW FEATURE

Just yesterday I saw an email posted by a fellow classmate. The subject title: "99 days until graduation." Immediately after seeing it I began to seriously consider how I've spent my time at Harvard -- what I've learned, what I've forgotten, what I missed out on, what I truly loved, and how in the world I actually ended up where I am today (alive and sane). As if right on schedule, once the countdown has begun and the days are seemingly waring thin, the desires to savor and relish and love and appreciate all start to kick in and knock out any remaining practical sense we've been hanging onto. To be honest -- I've waited until the last moments to truly explore the place where I have been living, studying, and procrastinating over the past four years. And I don't mind. Or at least, I've accepted that fact and moved on. I'm not trying to 'make up for lost time and opportunities.' I'll never be a freshman again, never go to that concert that took place two years ago, never run naked in the Yard before winter finals (okay...that still might happen in another context). For now, I'm preparing to begin. To begin looking for new chances, to be more aware of what's around, to experience, and acknowledge. And with that swoosh of philosophical hipster jargon nonsense, I've decided to start listing 99 things that I want to try during the course of the remaining 99 days I have left. I won't do one item every day. I may not reach 'em all. Yet, somehow making this public pushes me to accomplish at least one major thing this semester (#senioritisproblems). I don't really know what this will look like, but I'm ready to document and detail stories for you and for myself. Check in every week to see how I'm surviving the countdown!

In the meantime, anybody have ideas/places/activities I should explore? Send a note in the comment box :)