Summer 2011: in which I get postcards from places I’ve yet to visit from a few absolutely fine individuals. Schönen Dank.

You know what’s awesome? Climbing a 3,343 foot mountain and being able to see the intersecting, illuminated grid of orange streetlights, crawling cars, and empty plots of land where potential once stood that makes up the frayed fabric of this golden city, so much so that the same procession we witnessed of winking lights gradually sweeping across the contained valley as part of this nightly revival of neon brilliance could be seen by astronauts in the fucking thermosphere. It’s like we’re seeing our homes for the first time: cookie-cutter houses laid out to border winding streets, all to the backdrop of unrelenting, undeniable, and sometimes unbearable neon. This is home. I’m parting with it very soon. Strangely and understandably, the goodbyes get easier. 

And what’s even more so? Discovering a dead flashlight battery upon reaching the peak and having to later hike down a mountain using only raw moonlight, a flawed sense of direction, and fragments of “I’ll Make a Man out of You” to fuel the descent. You can’t begin to imagine our gratitude for the full moon. Not getting ravaged by a mountain lion is a cool perk too, I guess. 

The clock’s ticking, the hours are whizzing by, and the moments are ending like the blooming of rhododendrons in reverse and no one is taking particular notice because they’re too busy being enveloped in them. 

• compose packages to send off to Latin America 
• compile a list of addresses to write to between college classes
• write a thank you letter to the National Science Foundation
• send a postcard to Arizona
• call financial aid office about payment due August 15th
• organize room and fix  broken closet
• get a journal to log dreams because texting them to others does not suffice
• FINALLY UPLOAD THE DRAWING OF A CERTAIN GERMAN KID 
• read camera’s manual after two week’s worth of neglect
• hike mountains
• attend First Friday and soak up as much of this creaking, glittering city as you can
• THE BOOK THIEF 
• A HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
• A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
• BUY LOTS OF FILM
• get a planner
• Cross your fingers for Fleet Foxes in Holyoke

But mostly, get off the internet and, as Taryn would say, “be in a state of perpetual application.” 

(by austintaceous)

This is what my cousin and I did today. 

6:07am: Waiting.

As of 7:20am tomorrow morning, I will be leaving Nevada’s 107 degree temperatures for greener, cooler, better things (i.e. national youth science GEEK camp, judge as you will). NGUYEN, OVER AND OUT.  

P.S. 

You probably can’t tell, but that dark shadow is me falling off the 108th floor of a building. 

CLIMBING MOUNTAINS IN THE CITY FROM WHICH I WILL DEPART IN THE FALL? Check. 

(the entirety of the Las Vegas strip was viewable at that elevation and I’m most certain that I won’t ever be able to get that intimate with flying ants ever again) 

Anonymous asked: Hey, I'm wondering why you chose Williams? :) Did the campus visit make a huge difference?
Personally, I thought Swarthmore was amazing, but I would've chosen Duke.
I'd like to hear your perspective!

Hi anon! 

By the fall of my senior year, I had only visited liberal arts colleges and so I was already partial to the community feel, personal faculty, and education-for-education’s-sake philosophy offered by LACs going into the college admissions process and was convinced I’d ultimately end up at one anyway. Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore were at the top of my list of dream schools and other schools to which I applied fell under either the “I-doubt-I’d-get-in-anyway-so-let’s-not-invest-too-much-hope-in-them” or the “applying-strictly-for-the-brand-name-LET’S-BRING-HONOR-TO-THE-FAMILY-AND-INFLATE-MY-EGO” (of which I was in denial) category of schools, which admittedly had nothing going for them anyway or more accurately, as decisions unfolded, I had nothing going on for them. Duke was one of these schools and out of all the brand name ones I applied and got in to, it was the least desirable because of its crazed basketball culture, pre-professional vibe, hyped Greek scene, and most critically, its ungodly humidity (which were all confirmed during my visit, THOUGH MY HOST WAS AWESOME AND SHOUT OUT TO ALVIN KANG FOR HOSTING ME ON THE SPOT). So Duke lost my lackluster non-existent love. Different strokes for different folks, so don’t go on thinking of it as Puke University (whether this is literally true, others can attest) based on my opinion alone because I’m sure Duke students really enjoy their Cameron Crazies, exotic mating habits with the game of basketball (“black tenting”), and Olympics-level beer pong and I can respect them for that. 

SWARTHMORE AND WILLIAMS WERE BOTH AMAZING, but purples cows trumped the phoenixes in terms of financial aid and so I have nothing against Swatties (if anything, giant adirondack chairs will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you, Taryn!). Of course, I love Williams for its Oxford tutorials, Williams-Mystic, outdoorsy vibe, New England weather, quirky mascot, balanced artsy and jock culture, high grad school placement, study abroad programs, onsite museum, winter study, hikes up Stone Hill, SMALL, Mountain Day, and observatory (!!!), and so a better financial aid package only sweetened the deal. So it goes. 

The shortened version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcl/4190228785/

summer mornings. 

Officially a high school graduate.

2:09am: the “What Am I Doing with My Life?” edition in which I mesh watercolors into a murky poo, pass it off as a final exam painting, and question my existence.

GOOD NIGHT.  

@leasia: I meant to tell you this months before, but since you’re leaving for Pakistan soon, I thought you should know: I BOUGHT NAAN BECAUSE OF YOU AND I’M ENJOYING EVERY BIT OF IT. 

You see, Office Max and I, we understand each other’s needs. Printing tumblr-found things on large-scales and laminating said prints being most of them. 

THIS MAY OR MAY NOT BE A BIRTHDAY PRESENT. JUDGE AS YOU PLEASE.