The week started with the ultimate high (see #1 below). How could the rest of it compare? How can you expect me to go back to living my ordinary life after an experience like that?? It was so hard to find the motivation to do what I needed to get done, so productivity plateaued and that only led to stress, which made for a rough week. To think that we’re only two weeks into the spring semester! During times like these, I need a Happy List more than ever to remind myself of all the things I have going for me.

The first week of classes has been a breeze–so much smoother than last semester, in which I spent four weeks trying to get into my Intro to Computer Science class. It’s a popular course, and a small liberal arts college just doesn’t have the resources for the amount of interest this growing field garners. Thankfully, this semester I’ve gotten into all the classes I was lotteried for, so I’ll be taking Intro to Data Structures, Discrete Math, Intro to Semantics, and Phonetics/Phonology. I’m so excited to be completely focused on my double major with these two computer science classes and two linguistics classes. Although I must say, I’ve been assigned a surprising amount of reading…

It’s been a fantastic two weeks in Austin for my winter externship, and now I’m back at Bryn Mawr, but I’m not sure I’m ready o.o Yeah, I’ve been on winter break for four weeks, but I don’t think I ever really got a chance to unwind. I’m excited and nervous for the second semester, but it’s nice that we have some extra time to recollect ourselves with a long weekend for MLK Day. School starts on Tuesday!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I’m currently in Austin, Texas for my winter externship. Refer to #5 to see how it’s going. Hint: Since my externship is part of the Happy List below, that means it’s going AWESOMELY.

Last year I tried a 52 project documenting my Sunday mornings for 52 weeks. Technically I made it to 40~ weeks, but things actually started falling apart at 30~ weeks. At the end of 2015, I was hoping that I’d be able to make a roundup of 52/52 weeks, taking you through my year, week by week. That didn’t happen, but I did manage to make a highlights of 2015 post.

However, I’ve not given up on attempting 52 projects altogether! It’s a new year, which means new beginnings, so this year I’m going to give it another go. To make this more achievable, I’ve decided to succumb to the tantalizing format of listicles. Inspired by Jaye Rockett, I’ll be posting a Happy List every week. She consistently shares ten things, but I’ll aim for at least three, and if there’s more, #blessed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my 12 Days of “Blogmas” in which I posted every day for the 12 Days of Christmas (since I wasn’t able to make it for the days leading up to Christmas, which is when most people do v/blogmas)! I am currently in Austin, Texas for the second day of my winter externship at the Austin Fire Department working in IT, so I won’t be posting as frequently these next two weeks. An “externship” is a joint program between Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, in which experiential opportunities (basically short-term internships) are offered by alumni and parents of alumni. I’ll be hosted by and working alongside Bryn Mawr College alum Elizabeth for two weeks, familiarizing myself with their Business Intelligence system. This is my first ever off-campus job/internship and I’m kind of nervous, so wish me luck! I will return every Monday for the rest of the year with my Happy List, but I wanted to end blogmas with this, so here it is on Tuesday this week.