inspiration from a fortune cookie

I've been having a stressful couple days (just grad school things). I decided to take a break and get Thai food with one of my best friends here & this was my fortune! Definitely just what I needed to get through the last couple months of the semester.

My fortune cookie from dinner Saturday night. A sign for me to just keeping going.

There's this thing here at Penn known as "Penn Face". The class I took over the summer (College Student Health) spoke a lot about this topic. Penn Face is a façade students put on where they pretend everything is "okay" on the outside, but really on the inside they are overwhelmed, stressed, and don't think they can manage.

Being a graduate student is hard. Being a graduate student at such an elite institution like Penn may be harder. You are constantly surrounded by the high-achievers, the people who graduated at the top of their class, the people who (seemingly) can do a million things (+ one) and not even stress about it. For me, it's sometimes hard to think I belong here and that I am in the same ranks of my classmates. But, having confidence in yourself and assuring yourself that YES, you do belong here can get you so far. Because, you do belong here & have lots to offer in the classrooms of Penn GSE.  And hopefully, if you are as fortunate as I have been, you will have members of your cohort who encourage you along the way.


All smiles outside the Van Pelt Library. Some of my favorites from the Higher Education division.

Positive message in a stairwell of one of the campus residence halls.