Abstract :
With finals just around the corner and my second semester at Columbia University drawing to a close, I cannot help but feel a twinge of sadness at this unambiguous demarcation of the passage of time. In college, the end of each year catapulted me into a fit of nostalgia and wistfulness that usually lasted as long as the summer vacation, dissipating rapidly with the start of the new fall semester. Apparently, graduate school will be no different. As plans for summer research and vacation become increasingly definitive, I find myself reflecting with melancholy on my first year as a graduate student and marveling at how much I have changed in just nine months.
