Let undergraduates be undergraduates, and let children be children. Sharing this first (´･_･ `). I really hope everyone can enjoy their undergraduate years and grow up happily.
We are so exhausted that we do not even dare to imagine changing anything. To put it starkly: spending an hour thinking about this had better not delay the next deadline. Looking at that thought from outside, isn’t it ironic?
An era in which exploration is worth almost zero. 🤣
My impression of the friends around me is that fewer than 20% attend lectures and 80% are unhappy. I have even forgotten what the rigorous definition of a school is. When I talk to friends ten years older than us, they find it unimaginable that so many people do not attend lectures.
A serious question: what proportion of your friends seem unhappy…? (´･_･ `)
It seems that, at some point, I began admiring only people who can make their lives work and still have dreams. Whatever their GPA, papers, research, work, English, competitions, practical activities, internships, income, or social status: have they been happy lately?
As for me, I have been a little worm 🐛 throughout undergrad. I have not been happy.
Today on Xiaohongshu I saw someone who wanted to leave USTC to study at Tsinghua’s Academy of Arts & Design. That was his dream, and I happily wrote a long reply. Some people in the comments, though, argued as if he were an outsider: must he compete his way into graduate school at Tsinghua? An era with zero value placed on exploration feels so suffocating, so suffocating…
Having a dream is right. Even if he does not realize it, I think he will at least have experienced the feeling of making that decision. (☻-☻)
Let us stop talking about AI, GPAs, research, internships, and vibe coding. Could we talk about the songs you like? Do you prefer sunny days, cloudy days, or rain? Where do you want to travel? Where would you like to settle? Have you imagined how you would decorate your future home? Oh, and what would you do if you won fifty million? Sunsets are beautiful; a few years ago I saw one I will never forget. Do you prefer dawn or dusk? Summer or winter? I cannot remember the name of the little cat downstairs in our dorm. Once I saw it curled up asleep on a lounge chair in a ground-floor common room. Would you keep a pet? Have you been to that park, with its wide-open lake and its millennium-style amusement rides? Autumn makes me feel a little sad and bleak, but sunshine makes everything all right. Would you rather I gave you something beautiful or something useful? Do you like crunchy peaches or soft ones? Rich, milky ice cream or something closer to a sorbet? Those bubbles are so pretty—let us take a photo. Oh, and I have never managed to blow a bubble with bubble gum, or whistle with whistle candy. Let us stop talking about internships and autumn recruitment. I do not want to hear about AI agents or vibe coding anymore. Is there another new academic buzzword designed to cater to the digital-intelligence era? It makes me feel a little sick. These competitions, these practical activities, these false masks, these flashy PowerPoint slides. And I do not want gossip about schemers or supposedly extraordinary people either. Let us go to the park.