Hamilton College Admission Journals: Asad Javed

The One Where There Were Books All Around

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:54:33 GMT

I normally don’t study in the library. For one, books are scary as it is. Then, 20 million of them together are just recipe for disaster. And secondly, I like to lie prop up my pillow behind my back, put my laptop in my lap and study in the comfort of my own bed. It just feels much more relaxing.

So when I have to actually get up and drag my hynie to the library, that’s when you know that the workload has officially taken off from being ‘daunting’ and has reached ‘murderous’. And then when I sit in the library for 4 straight hours without moving anything but my fingers as I frantically type, you know in all likelihood I’ve either gone clinically insane, or it's finals week at Hamilton.

So as this wretched week takes over my life, I wish anyone and everyone out there who’s in the same boat as moi, bonne chance. Even though procrastination died with my social life last Saturday, this week will pass. These blurry French words will become history, and this 15 page long paper on Bollywood will only be a memory of a dark dark time when I get to New York City for my internship next week. The world will be reborn again.

But till then, its adieu to sleep and hello to caffeine abuse. Good luck, world, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

The One With The WELCOME TO HAMILTON COLLEGE!

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:54:12 GMT

Dear new journal buddies!

CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to the single-greatest place in the English-speaking, snow-covered world!!! LET THE 4 MOST UNFORGETTABLY AWESOME YEARS OF YOUR LIFE BEGIN!

Everyone on the hill is super excited to welcome you all in the class of 2017 to our fondest 13323!
I remember the time I got my acceptance notification on myHamilton two years ago. Being on the other side of the world then, it was 4:30 in the morning, and while the world snored, I was screaming and shrieking in pitches I didn’t know I could hit. So I've pondered how much has happened between then and now, and how much Hamiton has managed to give me in the 2 short years that I’ve been here.

Then, I was shyly making my way through a new culture. Now, I’m a peer-mentor helping freshmen.

Then, I was a prospective psych major switching to creative writing. Now I’m a declared theater major, designing my own major in film.

Then, I could speak 23 phrases of French, most of which were about coffee. Now, just two weeks ago, I spoke to a woman from Montreal in French for a four hour bus trip.

Then, I was meeting with Heather Wixson at the Career Center about careers in fashion. Now, I’m meeting with alums about careers in film.

Then, I couldn’t stand mashed potatoes. Now, I’m every potato’s worst nightmare.

Then, I shyly sang in the showers. Now, I’m writing musicals.

Then, I was confused and scared. Now, I’m gay and proud.

I guess, then, I was a boy with a multitude of questions. Now, I’m a man with a few answers.

So from the mid-point of my sojourn to the start of yours, I can tell you one thing when you think of the College on the Hill over the next few weeks. You’ll never have laughed so loud, cried so hard, loved so real, smiled so wide and learned so much. Welcome to the ride of your life, 2017. WELCOME… TO HAMILTON COLLEGE!

Email me if you have any questions. I’d love to talk to you all!

The One With That Avant-Garde Play

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 17:04:16 GMT

Hey journal buddies

So if you don’t go to Hamilton, then you need to go to Hamilton this Thursday. If you do go to Hamilton, then you need to follow the amazing posters of blue and green you’ve been seeing all over campus. That’s right, what started 5 months ago bathed in black is finally about to go on brilliant in blue and glistening in green. House of Brockmann’s final performance, the crescendo after 3 years of avant-garde dystopian theater, A Leurs Yeux, is being staged in the barn this coming Thursday, 7:30 and 9:30, and you’re all invited.

So grab a friend, and come on over. It’ll be a spectacle like never before.

The One Where He's Designing a Major

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:51:58 GMT

Hey journal buddies

Times on the hill are exciting, although when are they not, seriously… But personally, this last week has been a mish-mash of endless meetings, never-ending research, extreme planning, downright coffee abuse, and plenty of enthusiastic highs, for I have been working on something not a lot of people get to do. While your average straight-in-the-head sophomores on the hill are waiting for February 10th to declare the majors they so love and adore, but of course yours truly has been busy with something a little more creative: I’ve been designing my own major.

It’s been a joke in my group of friends that my intended major changes by the hour, and I don’t blame them. I’ve jumped from psychology, to art, to French, to English, to creative writing, to theater. And that was just my first two semesters here. It just took a while before I found my niche in the performing arts, and I was finally a theater major.

Around the start of the fall semester, while I was contemplating what I plan to do with a theater degree once I graduate, the possibility of working in the cinematic highlighted itself. So I explored some frontiers, took a class that explored race through film and literature and finally ended up shadowing an alum through the Hamilton Explore shadowing program that the Career Center has for sophomores. After spending a day with Benjamin Eckstein ’01, I finally decided. After Hamilton, I want to work with film. And amongst the myriad other things I picked up that day, the coolest was how Mr. Eckstein had designed his own major in film back in 1999.

Since then, pretty much every day, half my day is devoted to working on the design of the major and the rest of it obsessing and drooling over how cool it’ll be. Mixing courses from Africana Studies, Dance, Cinema and New Media Studies, and adding a study abroad component in Prague to cover production work, the proposal for the interdisciplinary “film” concentration now sits neatly compiled in a buff and blue Hamilton folder in my backpack, decorated by signatures of supporting faculty members. I'm going to be a Theater and Film double major

So as I work through these last few days, getting my concentration approved by professors before I submit it to the Committee on Academic Standing, I can say one thing surer than ever before. At Hamilton, nothing falls beyond the realm of possibility. Any idea you have is not only heard, but genuinely promoted. With the inspiring ranks of professors and encouraging deans that hold offices all over this snow-capped hill, at Hamilton College, in its truest, EVERYTHING is possible.

The One With The New Year

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:45:12 GMT

Hey journal buddies

The snow’s still falling. The warm smell of cinnamon still hangs in the air. The world is still around.

Happy New Year! Good luck with all the resolutions.