A lot has been going on in my life: I finished my last LAMUN by chairing the SPQR committee (detailing the usurpation of power by Julius Caesar), got nominated for a classics prize, finalized my participation in UCLA Undergraduate Research Week, and most importantly, got a job.

I am pleased to announce that the SPQR committee was a riotous (and murderous, for all the assassinations that happened) success, I am nominated for the Helen Caldwell Prize for outstanding Classical Civilization minors, I will present a poster during UCLA Undergraduate Research Week for my Hearts and Minds thesis, and I will be a teaching assistant (TA) for UCLA Global Classrooms at Jinling Middle School (really, the high school because Chinese secondary education is not institutionally divided between sixth and twelfth grade).

I really am grateful to my interviewers and employers for this opportunity, and I think it'll make a great opportunity to live in a place where English is not the first language spoken. I want to practice my Chinese and live in East Asia for the first time since I was five years old. (As my Uncle Weiming says, "In conclusion, life is always full of risks when venturing into an unknown, but as long as it is a calculated risk and can be managed, then take it! Certainly you shall discuss with you parents [and] ask their spiritual support if you so decide to take it!")

At this juncture between an exciting opportunity and leaving the life I've built for myself in Los Angeles these past four years, I find myself at a transition, with all the accompanying emotions. I won't lie, I sobbed like a child after the end of closing ceremonies after my last LAMUN. It's bittersweet to witness seniors taking special photographs for the first three years, and then finally taking my own senior photograph on that stage. (I also emphatically note that I am not the only senior who cried after closing ceremony.)

Of course, the excitement of all of this is muted by the fact that I've now got to prepare for two midterms after temporarily sidelining academics in favor of preparing for LAMUN, but I'm actually quite excited about my History 114C class, because I've never had the opportunity to study the Late Antiquity period in detail before. I think I shall have more to write upon after I wrap up exams next week.