Here's another sloppy, quick post. This is devolving fast. Sorry, I warned you I wasn't cut out for diaries.
Morning: class, working on the paper, yelling at my printer, flipping out when something i had to hand in came out in green ink, giving up on life.
Afternoon: more class, foreign policy review session picnic-style with orangina (so picturesque that tourists were snapping shots...seriously), boring stuff you don't need to hear about
Evening: dinner, filming another video for chinese class...and then dinner again. my mom was here meeting up with some old law school friends (25th reunion), and when i stopped by to say hello everyone was eating burgers. life rule, never turn down a good-looking burger. my order: as raw as they'll serve it to me (don't judge, i'm just a product of my raising), any cheese but american, extra ketchup and mayo, no raw onions please. i think there was a question about a salad diet in the comments? lol
Night: work. stress. be jealous of people having thirsty thursdays. blog. sleep
also, note that this week highly unrepresentative in that i saw my mom twice in five days. this never happens. if you follow my twitter at all, you know that my parents have forgotten i exist and don't even answer my texts
Morning: class, working on the paper, yelling at my printer, flipping out when something i had to hand in came out in green ink, giving up on life.
Afternoon: more class, foreign policy review session picnic-style with orangina (so picturesque that tourists were snapping shots...seriously), boring stuff you don't need to hear about
Evening: dinner, filming another video for chinese class...and then dinner again. my mom was here meeting up with some old law school friends (25th reunion), and when i stopped by to say hello everyone was eating burgers. life rule, never turn down a good-looking burger. my order: as raw as they'll serve it to me (don't judge, i'm just a product of my raising), any cheese but american, extra ketchup and mayo, no raw onions please. i think there was a question about a salad diet in the comments? lol
Night: work. stress. be jealous of people having thirsty thursdays. blog. sleep
also, note that this week highly unrepresentative in that i saw my mom twice in five days. this never happens. if you follow my twitter at all, you know that my parents have forgotten i exist and don't even answer my texts
Aww, haha, I applaud your effort.
ReplyDeleteget some rest, sophia! and please don't feel obligated to be posting detailed daily diary-like entries for us. you definitely have other priorities. just catch us up on your life once in a while! (although when you don't blog, I do miss reading your writing!)
ReplyDeleteWell, as much as I hated seeing such a short and unsatisfying post, I will take what I can get. Also, I am cutting her some slack because yesterday's post was so good.
DeleteStill though, I expect the next post to be a full-course meal or I might have to start shopping for a new buffet. Speaking of which, anyone else know of a highly successful and motivated university student who's keeping an online blog? Only straight-A students qualify, the rest are garbage. (Pun intended, but I am serious, B stands for Bad grade).
hey, don't be rude. sophia's busy and we should just be happy she's taking the time to post on her blog despite all the work she has to do.
DeleteAre you serious? 'Only straight-A students qualify'? It would be really hard to get the highest grade in EVERY single assessment task you do in university. I'm sure nobody has actually done that, even those who are super smart.
DeleteMy suggestion is, instead of relying on "straight-A student" blogs to motivate you, MOTIVATE YOURSELF!!
You and anyone else cannot expect Sophia to write "full-course meal" posts all the time. She has what you would call a life.
^ LOL! I too am interested in reading other blogs like Sophia's! (Although I will always remain fiercely loyal to the tiger cub, of course)
DeleteKeep up the great work!
Sheeh, people, relax. Sophia isn't some baby girl that needs commenters on a blog standing up in arms to protect her. My comment was simply being cheeky about the meal thing. As for the straight A student bit, I was talking about GPA, not individual assignments or tests. A straight A student, having received a bad grade on an assignment, will make sure to find out from the teacher what needs to be done to improve and will actually improve in time for the final exam. I can also accept someone with a hard major like aeronautical engineering to not have all A's, but only if it's after they have done virtually everything in their power to get the best possible grade.
DeleteAnd I don't rely on blogs to motivate me, I rely on them to entertain me, and Sophia's is highly entertaining. A non-straight A student will just end up putting garbage online that only bad students want to read.
I go to a college only slightly less competitive and slightly smaller than Sophia's, and only the valedictorian sometimes gets a 4.0. As in, only one person out of thousands will be a straight A college student through all four years, and that doesn't even happen for each graduating class. Perhaps Harvard has significantly more grade inflation, or perhaps you really are just genuinely unfamiliar with the American university system, but I just thought I'd point out that being a straight-A college student is way different than being a straight-A high school student, especially when you go to a school like Harvard where the majority of kids are used to straight As.
DeleteBut you're right that Sophia isn't a baby and doesn't need us telling her she's allowed to take a break from blogging without feeling guilty, and this whole discussion is kind of stupid.
(apologies to everyone if i took the troll bait.)
dude, instead of leeching off of a highly successful and motivated university student's blog for motivation and entertainment, why don't YOU be highly successful and motivated YOURSELF and make a blog that swarms of people across the globe will follow and praise the way they do for Sophia? Jeez, you're clearly not leader-type material AT ALL, unlike Sophia. Just don't post your stupid comments on here just cuz you're secretly envious and don't have enough in your life and can't even find means of entertainment on your own without having to rely on ppl like Sophia.
Deletewhat are you doing/making for Mother's Day this year, sophia? :)
DeleteAnon @01:47 PM, thank you for your calm and rational comment, I agree with you that getting a 4.0 in college is hard and colleges vary significantly in that respect, but I maintain that no truly good student is ever happy with getting a B regardless. I shouldn't have said "straight-A student", I should have said "excellent student" instead, someone who always does everything in their power to get all A's. As for the "garbage" thing, I wasn't being serious, it was merely a joking reference to the outrage that Amy Chua got when people thought she was condoning calling your children 'garbage'.
DeleteAnon @02:19 PM, I don't mean to offend you, but you seem to have self-esteem issues (attacking me like that over nothing... wtf). I sincerely hope you rethink your outlook on life, cheer up. Why make Sophia read such an angry comment even if it is directed at me? (I am really sorry, Sophia, I know it was my comment that caused this in the first place.)
I totally agree with you.
ReplyDeleteThere is no harm in skipping blog posts when you´re really busy. Just take it easy and get some rest this weekend.
ReplyDeleteyour mom said in an interview that you're spending your summer giving lectures in china? could you tell us a little more? :) thanks for posting!
ReplyDeletewait, really?! yes, please do tell us more about that, or post a link to the interview, or something. what a fabulous opportunity!
DeleteI think it's so great that you're going to be giving lectures in China this summer! I've seen your WSJ interview and your grad speech and not only are you a great speaker simply because you're so pretty to look at (LOL sry.. superficial) and you have such a pretty voice as well (were you in choir in high school too??), but also because you're as dynamic and powerful of a speaker as you are a writer and you mix just the right amount of wit and charm ;) It's really cool that you're pursuing such meaningful activities at such a young age and I bet you'll make a difference in the hearts and lives of many fans (and critics too) in China!
DeleteYou sound stressed out--take a deep breath and remember that it's all going to be fine. Don't worry about your readers not getting full-length, detailed diary entries! We are really not your first priority.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this, I appreciate the effort. Thank you:)
ReplyDeleteHow many hours of sleep do you get a day on average?
yes, even I was wondering the same thing.
DeleteDear Sophia,
Please do tell us, how many hours of sleep do you get a day on average?
hi sophia!! i just wanted to say good luck with the rest of your semester!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! i believe in you and think you're awesome no matter what :)
ReplyDeleteI love how this started out so enthusiastic with pictures and little time slots - and ends up being short, snappy, picture-less and "morning, afternoon, evening, night" :P
ReplyDeleteThanks for sticking with it though Sophia! Really love getting an insight into the world of Harvard, and your motivation (especially with sticking more extracurriculars in with work-heavy days) is very motivating :)
Take care of yourself! And good luck with that paper!
It's even harder to write a blog without readers, but the truth is, it's not easy coming up with interesting topics everyday. I mean topics that interest you enough to want to write about the topic. The brain needs writing breaks, also.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, foreign relations are a favorite topic of mine. Not sure if Harvard's version of the topic would seem interesting or distorted to me. Okay, I'm a minority. Hope the lectures are excellent.
Raw hamburger? Guess that is your Tiger side showing. Call me too civilized, I like my burger cooked until done, no red showing at all. Time to get back to my own blog. Keep writing when time permits.
I'm curious to know... what time did you wake up, and go to sleep on Thursday? If you did a late night until after 3am, did you let yourself sleep in? Also, we didn't receive your Thursday post until much later... so does that mean you did two late night in one week? I admire the energy and tenacity you have to persevere, even though you're under stress and tired. And we really appreciate receiving these blog posts, especially since we now know how crazy busy you are, yet, you still take time to post. P
ReplyDeleteDo you write itineraries for yourself to follow everyday? Thank you for writing these posts so well! :)
ReplyDeletemaybe just do a small q&a for next time?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do at MIT?
ReplyDeleteWhere is Day7?
ReplyDeletei LOVE my steak "as rare as they can legally serve it" as well!! Even though my family and friends give me strange, surprised looks whenever we go out for steak... hahaha, oh well. you're awesome! btw, the pics of you and your dad when you were little on your mom's website are SO adorable - you were the cutest baby ever with your chubby cheeks!
ReplyDeleteanyway, i'm so sorry that your printer is not working properly :( I hope you get a new one soon. Also, I hope that your chinese presentation is going well! xoxo
just curious sophia, have you decided on a major yet? it seems like you're leaning towards the liberal arts! :D
ReplyDeletei read your blog religiously, lol :P
ReplyDeleteSophia, I've just been catching up on all your diary posts. Do you mind posting a "How to Workout Like a Tiger Cub" guide? Because you do seem to schedule working out/exercising as a major portion of your schedule and you do seem fit and healthy. I'm sure many other women would love to know any secrets or exercise routines you have!
ReplyDeleteI feel like Sophia's description of her workout with her roommate is pretty detailed in her first diary entry: "Ran twenty minutes through urban Cambridge (me), twenty minutes back along The River (her), did a weight workout (me), abs (both), elliptical (ALL her). I can't do machines. I run faster away from the treadmill than I do on it. Also, at least when I wipe out on my face on the sidewalk, I get bloody wounds and people feel bad for me." distance running, sprints, weight workout, abs - seems like a pretty solid exercise routine to me
DeleteYou spent a lot of time at MIT. Is it because your boyfriend goes there?
ReplyDeleteno
DeleteI conjecture it's because she participates in ROTC.
DeleteROTC is awesome! my sister's in it and she loves the intensive training every morning :)
Deleteher boyfriend goes to harvard...
DeleteHey Sophia
ReplyDeleteEven though we missed out on Day 7, I really appreciate the time and effort you put into writing “the daily life of a Tiger Cub”, especially since we knew you were tired and overworked towards the end. I enjoyed reading your blog posts this week, and looked forward to them each day. In fact, I was quite sad when they came to an end.
If anything, your writings this week has encouraged me to a) be more focused, b) have more of a life balance, and c) exercise more. Some things I noticed (and correct me if I’m wrong)
a) Your workload gets busier and busier towards the end of the week, and your waking hours gets longer and longer towards the end.
b) For some funny reason, I expected to see some piano playing in there. Are you taking a break for a while?
c) Your dinner times are variable 4.30 for Tuesday fruit night? Early dinner. Do you get hungry later in the evening? I bet the LOTR hobbits would fully approve of your 2nd dinner on Thursday night
d) You’re going to have some fantastic philosophical discussions after this week’s Rawls paper. Envious.
P.S., any chance of a belated “Day 7” Post?
My friend and I just spent an hour discussing how admirable of an individual you are, what a great writer you are (just look at the way this blog is presented! Amazing), how pretty you are, and how diligent you are. You are truly admirable, Sophia! As current high school seniors, my friend and I could not find a better role model. Thank you for sharing all that you share on your blog! We continue looking up to you as we continue our trek in college.
ReplyDeleteHow many languages can you speak?
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you were able to write daily for a week, I wish I could do that!!
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who is interested, I started a blog today called http://gemthoughts101.blogspot.com/.
It's nothing like Sophia's blog but please check it out.
Hey Sophia! One question, I just want to know what you did to become valedictorian. Did you study for your ap courses before hand? How did you quickly understand difficult concepts? I know that you're clearly busy, but if you could make it as your next blog topic it would be great!
ReplyDelete#AspiredToBe#1
I remember her mentioning that the year group votes for valedictorian. Being smart and popular certainly didn't hurt her chances.
DeleteI just wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your family in your mother's book. I started a book review blog and plan to do a post about it. As the daughter of a tiger mother myself, it was very interesting to read about how the parenting system worked for your family. It's obviously done wonders because you seem to be a mature, responsible young woman (while still managing to have fun every once in a while). Loved this series of posts about your daily life!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work and good luck throughout the rest of your semester.
I really enjoyed the mention of your family in that NYT article yesterday about family dinners. I can't even imagine casual anecdotes from my family's life being mentioned in the NYT! Though I guess you probably couldn't either until last year. But anyway, I really liked what your mom said about trying to create an intellectual, cultured atmosphere for you and your sister. I can't express what a privilege it would be if I got to eat dinner with Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld for a week, let alone for my whole childhood. I know you like to talk about how you never had your hand held, and I think that's true to a certain extent. But even though your parents may have expected much from you, they gave you every possible resource and advantage to do so. Please never forget or downplay that. I mean, I'm not trying to guilt you or whatever, I'm just saying that your parents are super awesome and even the little things you got, like moral discussions at dinner, are super awesome and rare and special.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia, I think it's great that you are so active and fit in so much every day. Truly living life to the fullest! Curious what your thoughts are on burnout. Do you think it's caused by external (as opposed to internal) motivation? Did you ever suffer from "senioritis?" Any advice on how to deal?
ReplyDeletexo from cali
Sophia, did you mean developing instead of devolving?
ReplyDeletesophia, what are you doing this summer?
ReplyDeletePlease come back and write again !
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia - Your recent stories about college life have been such an enjoyable read - thank you. I noticed no piano? Is this something you are slowing down or giving up?
ReplyDeleteI'm bad at this so i'll just stop blogging altogether..... really!!?!?!?!??!
ReplyDeleteUmmm... who said she stopped blogging? Sophia was experimenting with daily diary-type posts but didn't end up having that much fun with them after all, so the daily entries stopped.
DeleteWe, the readers, of course enjoyed every single word that she wrote, but we can't force her to write more. And trust me, if I could force her, she'd be producing thousands of words for me every single day. I'd spare her no effort.
Back to my original point though: take your contemptuous !'s and ?'s and shove'em up your bottom. That's what you get from tiger cub fans for jumping to stupid conclusions and trying to smear her. Sophia probably produced more blog posts in the past month than any other month before, so she deserves a break from us.
Of course she said that playfully.
DeleteYes, I'm just a curious stalker. But humor me. Have you ever gotten a grade less than an A on a test or otherwise? And how much time on the average day do you spend studying in college? Is it hard to stay in Harvard? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou aren't the type to run away from problems, or are you?
ReplyDeleteWhy did you stop writing?
Fix your schedule and start writing again. You need to remain a good example for kids out there. Don't be influenced by bad people.
Sophia doesn't "need" to do anything she doesn't want. That's not how being a role model works anyway. I think you forgot whose blog you were on here. To even insinuate that Sophia would ever run away from problems is ridiculous.
DeleteGo preach to all the people who haven't been A+ students all their life and who didn't go to college not because they didn't have the means, but because they simply didn't put in the effort.
^lol
DeleteI don't think Sophia stopped blogging altogether. She had clearly been busy with finals and she only said she'd experiment with this diary thing for about a week. give her a break!
ReplyDeleteHi, Sophia. I love your blog :)
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering, can you write about your favorite places/things to do in Boston?
What are some fun places to visit [for a tiger cub]?
Thanks!
no freshmen fifteen :( might want to remove the tags on your posts dear
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia!
ReplyDeleteCan you write a little more often on your blog? Isn't it summer break for you right now?
Not to push you or anything...
I’m reading between your elusive tweets, but are you on the Harvard Students Italy Trek? Leonardo’s Last Supper and Just Cavalli Milano in one day? Envious!
ReplyDeleteME WANT MORE!!!! Haha seriously though, I've been craving a post for the longest time now. Please write? Please?!?
ReplyDeletecould you maybe make a video? :)
ReplyDeleteI SECOND THIS!!!
DeleteSophia, I hope your finals turned out well! I just finished reading your mothers book, and loved it! What are your plans for the summer besides changing the world?
ReplyDeleteI hope you will tell us about your trip to Italy! Miss your blogs so much!
ReplyDeleteCome on, So-so, give us an update! Seriously, some of us, not myself of course (because I don't stalk people I don't personally know online), but I am sure others would love to hear some news from you.
ReplyDeleteI know, it can sometimes feel really weird to have anonymous strangers ask you personal questions, especially online (where sh!t can come back to haunt you years later), but understand this -- we just think you are a very interesting person, like a very popular character in a book, so we naturally want to know as much as possible about you. This is not to contribute to your vanity in any way, you can always lose my hard regard for you, but know this: intelligent people will never write you off based on any single opinion, because you have already established a reputation as a sensible person.
Thus please don't shy away from publicly expressing yourself on absolutely any topic. What's wrong with a young person voicing their _current_ opinion? If that opinion ever changes, then all the better. An honest person never needs to worry about what others think of them. But I digress...
Give us a new blog post, please!!!
sophia, do you use instagram?
ReplyDeleteAnother Post pleaasse! Or atleast thoughts:) If you are busy or starting to turn from your blog a little bit, just give us interested readers a heads up. Good luck with everything
ReplyDeleteWhat level of Chinese are you taking? If you are fluent, why not take a different class?
ReplyDeleteSophia, *Dory-speaking-whale-voice* "COOOME BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK."
ReplyDeletePlease?
not trying to be rude, but could you give us some new blog posts?? i mean I've been checking everyday for a month and a half already and have been disappointed.
ReplyDeletevery nice looking pics
ReplyDeleteStill no post? ...
ReplyDeleteWhat do you plan to do after undergrad? Law?
ReplyDeleteplease post more posts!!!! i love reading your blog!!
ReplyDeleteSophia, WE love you...
ReplyDeleteWhatever you are today, its only because of your parents' hard work.
You said; that that some chinese makeup artist, considers Lulu to be more pretty than you. Although, I think its the opposite.
You look very smart and beautiful.
So would Lulu be joining Law School?
Or would she go in medicine/engineering?
What did you do on father's day?
PLEASE POST...
i mean I've been checking everyday for a month and a half already and have been disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI read your blog religiuosly.
Please post about your vacation, harvard and louisa
ME WANT MORE!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease, I beg you to write one more post....
Dear Sophia...
ReplyDeleteWhat subjects did Louisa choose?
nice blog.. love it!!
ReplyDeleteSophia,
ReplyDeleteCould you post someting new? Please. You haven't posted anything for two months. :(
When are you going to post again? :(
ReplyDeleteGirrrl, it's been two months. Where you at?
ReplyDeleteSophia!!! Please update, I know you're busy with finals and all, but I miss the motivational posts. They actually let me know: don't worry mummy isn't as bad as you though Look at this tiger mom.
ReplyDeleteSophia, I miss you! Comeee back!!!!
ReplyDeleteCan you do a new post??? I would really love how to_____ like a tiger cub. How about How to practise an interment aka piano, or How to write an essay???