Do you ever hear a song that just speaks to your soul? One of those tunes that gets stuck in your head for days on end, because whoever wrote it is clearly some parallel universe version of you? Like, a song that captures exactly how you’re feeling?

For me, this song is by Kevin Kline and comes from a children’s book about chickens.

Yeah. So I’m a little busy.

I realized early in high school that I function way better when I’m busy. I sincerely don’t enjoy empty time—I’m going to be the worst retiree ever. I think it’s one of the reasons I picked up writing. If I have a project to work on obsessively, I can never really be bored.

So I’ve never shied away from putting a lot on my plate. This year, however, is going to be a fun new challenge.

Now that I’m a junior (#yikes), I’m really focusing on graduation requirements. My schedule is jammed with English classes (for that major I finally declared) and Symbolic Systems classes (for that minor I finally declared). It’s definitely a fun combination—I love embracing both the “fuzzy” and the “techie” sides of Stanford—but, as many of my friends have been quick to point out, “Those have, like, no overlap.”

Commitment Two: RAing. We Stanford RAs have been tossed about in the news as of late (that alcohol policy, man), but it’s actually the coolest job. Basically, it’s all about making friends with hundreds of residents, planning cool events, and, in the case of my dorm, bringing community to a place that has historically been pretty isolating. It’s been a great experience so far, and I’d highly recommend it to any Stanford student.

And Pitch Wars. I mentioned it in my last post, and no, the excitement has not worn off.

*Some blatant self-promotion:

My mini interview with my mentor, the awesome Chelsea Bobulski, just went live! Go check it out here.*

Still shocked and thrilled that I’m a 2016 mentee. But with everything else going on, I’ve learned an important lesson about creativity.

Sometimes, you’ve gotta force it.

Okay, so this isn’t really a new lesson for me. I’ve done NaNoWriMo enough at this point to know the drill. But sometimes, when life is full of Important Things To Do and everything is going really well, you don’t want to escape into your own world. Sometimes, the world around you is pretty awesome, and leaving it for a different one loses its appeal.

But when you have a Pitch Wars deadline and you want to make your mentor proud and get an agent come November, you have to sit down in front of your laptop anyway and start editing.

And once you’ve done enough of that for a day, you can take a break and write a blog post.

Happy first week of classes, Stanny—try not to get too busy <3