🌟 Helaine’s Quote of the Week:
Failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
🗓️ Weekly Recap
Personal Life
My life has mostly revolved around school and work recently, but I love going on study dates with my friends or just working together.
Your social life does not have to be mutually exclusive with locking in, and you can find ways to incorporate having fun with people you love while also getting work done!
Also, a lot of very exciting events and work outside of school that are coming up that I am super stoked about!
Productivity Life
It is officially midterm season at Harvard, and I had my first midterm last week, also my most difficult one.
I’ve been spending most of my days studying and going to class. Lots of long study sessions, doing practice tests, and more… That is also why I haven’t uploaded Dear Helaine for the last two weeks ☹
I am still in the trenches as I have two more midterms over the next two weeks, but I will do my best and let’s keep working hard together!
🚀 Lessons Learned
Lessons & Challenges
Failure. I had my first and most difficult midterm last week, and I did horrendously. I have never seen that grade in my life… It definitely took a toll on my emotional and mental health, and I got really stuck in my thoughts for several days after. What really affected me was the fact that I studied very hard for the exam and spent many hours reviewing and doing practice problems, yet I still failed. I think it hurt my self-esteem a lot, and especially as a study influencer, I even started questioning myself and whether or not I truly knew how to study.
However, after several crash-outs and conversations with myself, I have come out on the other side with new perspectives and lessons learned. One failure does not define me, and especially, one test grade does not define me. It is literally just a test, and I still have full faith in myself, my study methods, my hard work, and my ability to continue putting in my all. I am certainly not a genius, and I have to accept that there will always be people who are smarter than me and do better than me. And that is completely okay! Life is never a race or competition, and I am never falling behind. As long as I focus on myself and my own learning, I am certain that everything will work out in the best way possible.
However, even so, I am a firm believer in always reflecting on your mistakes or “failures” and learning from them. So let’s go down below to see some tips that I have for you, but more importantly, for myself moving forward.
You never fail until you stop trying.
Tips
Stop lying to yourself. When something is very difficult to learn, it is easy to try learning it for a while, read about it, and then convince yourself that you have figured it out or that you will be able to understand it later on. That’s what I did for several very difficult concepts. I don’t think I fully understood the concepts while they were being taught, and because I was frequently so busy with everything else going on in life, I would convince myself that it was okay and that I could always learn it later. Although I did in fact learn it later, I don’t think I fully have a complete 100% understanding of the concepts even now. And especially for very difficult classes like the one I’m in, what ended up happening was that the midterm problems mercilessly revealed these gaps in my understanding.
Nothing is as important as it seems. Less of a study tip but more of a mindset tip that I learned from this experience. Never failed a test as bad as this one, and maybe before I would have never even imagined this happening. But now that it’s over… I’m still alive, I’m still thriving, and everything is okay. We fall, we get back up, and we move on. It was just one test in my life, and I probably won’t even remember it 10 years from now. Failing this test and perhaps having it take a toll on my GPA might have seemed like the biggest deal 24 hours post-exam, but even now, my perspective has widened, and I am actively trying not to let it affect me. Everything in life is so small once you put it into perspective.
That does not mean you should invalidate your emotions or problems. I was very upset, even cried about it, and spent a whole day recovering, and that is totally okay. Let yourself feel and process your emotions, and remember, you are never overreacting or too much. However, after you let your emotions do their thing, let go, reflect and learn from past mistakes, and keep looking forward.
💖 Recent Obsessions
Okay, enough about such a heavy topic! Let’s move on to some of my recent obsessions, and there’s been a lot!
Food: PopUp Bagels
Omg a new PopUp Bagels store opened in Harvard Square this best Friday and I’m so excited!! They are my favorite bagel chain store, and they have the best cream cheeses. It’s also my way to class, so I fear I don’t have the self-control to not buy a new tub of cream cheese every week to dip my bagels in 🥯
Drama: Love’s Ambition
I am a huge fan of Chinese dramas, and a new drama acted by Zhao Lusi called Love’s Ambition is truly so good!!!! If you are into modern Chinese dramas, I highly recommend. Lowkey might have been spending too much time watching it post-midterm, but I think I deserve some rest :)
I also think there’s so much to learn from the female lead, Xu Yan. She is the perfect representation of ambition, dedication, and brains. So smart and not afraid to get what she wants using what she has! She is also so good at interacting with people, which I think is such a necessary skill to learn. And her fashion sense in the drama… perfection ✨
Reading: Original Tao: Inward Training (nei-yeh)
I started reading nei-yeh, or Inward Training, for my Chinese Philosophy class this past week, and it has been my favorite Chinese philosophy reading so far. I love so many of the ideas inside. A quick summary: the main ideas are keeping your heart centered and refraining from letting anything affect your inner peace, emotions, and energy.
Very much needed in our fast-paced world today, and honestly, I am surprised and in awe at how many amazing ideas these philosophers from thousands of years ago have!
🏆 Looking Ahead…
Goal: Keep working hard for my upcoming midterms and not let one experience affect me!
Thank you for always being here for me and supporting me, and I will try my best to keep bringing new letters to you every week! Feel free to leave your goal for next week by responding to this email or in the comment section!
See you next week,