Six Weeks in 600 Words! 📜

Hi everyone!

Happy April! It’s been a long minute since I sent out a newsletter, but I’m back. It’s currently the end of Week 1 of my spring and final quarter at Stanford, and I’m so excited to be done. Before getting into current updates, here is a quick rundown of the last two months:

February: Black History/Liberation Month📚

Every year (lmao, this is only my second year), I read books by black authors with the hope of intentionally reflecting and connecting with black history here in this country and around the world. This year, I read Thomas Healy’s Soul City and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer (linked are my Goodreads thoughts).

March: Winter Quarter Reflection🪞

This past winter was my most challenging quarter by far. From mourning Will, juggling demanding coursework, TAing, research, and supporting my loved ones to nursing physical ailments (I sprained my ankle badly) and managing my own soul care, I could not wait to be finished. If you know me, you know that I don’t like wishing for time to pass because we only live once, and I don’t want to take anything for granted. However, managing everything last quarter was a lot. As I’m planning for a much lighter spring quarter, I find it difficult to reconcile my identity outside of school. What does it mean to relax and not spend every waking moment being productive? After six years of higher education, you’d think I would’ve figured this out, but last quarter made me feel like I had regressed, and I’m not happy about it.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom because I learned a lot! I’m pleased about the educational progress I made. Moving forward, whether at my future job or if I’m ever back in academia, I need to find the best way to grow without sacrificing my own care and enjoyment.

March: Hopkins Graduation, Two Years Later 🎓

During my Spring Break, I returned home to Baltimore for my Young Alumni Weekend and Undergraduate Commencement. It was pretty emotional being back on Hopkins' campus with my peers. For me, this journey to commencement had several layers or years of emotions attached; from the initial shock of COVID-19 and everything’s cancellation to accepting it and graduating virtually. A year later, when the class of 2021 graduated, I cried, realizing what my class and I missed. Now, two years later, finally receiving this closure feels good. I’m glad I got to celebrate with my family and friends.

April: One Last Quarter ⌛

As I alluded to earlier, I am trying to enjoy this quarter and Northern California as much as possible. Saying yes to off-campus events feels strange, but future me will be disappointed if all my grad school memories are from my apartment. At the same time, I still want to keep learning and growing. My main learning goals through my classes are to:

• keep coding (urban systems and CS)
• keep creating (Civic Design)

Outside the classroom, my bucket list looks something like this:

• Visit Golden Gate and Mission Dolores Parks
• First Fridays in Oakland
• Yosemite
• Tahoe
• Presidio Parkway

It’s hard to believe that I’m almost done with this grad school journey! I hope to keep documenting the process.

Thanks for reading and reflecting this week! If you aren't subscribed to get this in your inbox weekly, you can here!

Best,
Awoe ✌🏾