Speaking of...

Speakers! In the last week (ish): Queen Rania of Jordan, Tom Brokaw, Judy Blume, Jodi Picoult, Paul Farmer, Bishop John Rucyahana, John Mather--Nobel Prize-winning physicist, writers of The Onion, Shihan--most famous slam poet alive, Sir Peter Crane, the President of Latvia, at least eight more I'm forgetting, the list will never end...

In one week at this school, I've seen and met more "famous" (aka my definition of famous) people than ever before in perhaps my entire life. It's unimaginable--every day I remain shocked to be living here, much less learning with and from such incredible people. (And that's just the guest speakers! My professors have their own wikipedia pages, faculty advisor, deans and masters and presidents oh my...)

It's easy to get a little starstruck, but it seems as if at some point all these cool people eventually get to be, well, just another part of Yale. Upperclassmen seem far too underwhelmed compared to the innocent frosh and to be honest, I'd only actually heard of maybe five of the speakers beforehand (gasp!).

But part of me never really wants to lose this giddy feeling that "ohmygosh, where am I?!" One of my suitemates saw Paul Farmer and Anne Fadiman in the same room on a 55-minute stop to the keynote speech of the Medical Anthropology conference here between dinner and section for class. Where does this happen?? How does this happen?? It seems crazy every day that people take tours of this place where we live, but it's hard not to admit that there is something weird, something magical here.

I guess my only hope is to not become complacent, to not miss out on these opportunities, to live it up...? It's going to happen, though. I will have to do laundry during a Master's Tea (like today), or nap through something amazing (almost every day), and eat dinner or do reading while the world remains turning and churning as I do so.

Perhaps this is just another part of life--you grab and do and enjoy and take advantage of and accomplish and revel in what you can, attempting to remain alive and well and passing in the process? Sounds good to me. At least for a couple years.