Nerdy Life as an Ivy League

"University of Pennsylvania, Home to the Nerds." 

A famous stereotype of Penn students is that they tend to be nerdy, due to their previous academic achievements. As a fresh Penn student, I can say for sure that this isn't always the case. I wasn't the top of my class; however, my GPA (of 3.5) is high enough to be enrolled here.

Reading my acceptance letter makes me feel like a Disney character finally getting my happy ending after going through a devastating plot. Days felt like weeks as I waited for the new semester to start. 

As I saw the university getting closer and closer during the taxi trip, the feeling of excitement rushed through my veins, and a huge smile formed on my face. This is the university where many billionaires have graduated from, including Elon Musk. This has been a dream of mine that I have been yearning for since I was in middle school, and being here feels like a fairytale or a lucid dream, that I can't and won't want to get out of forever.

Culture Shock in a Different Country

There are quite a few odd things I find here in the United States, from the place, lifestyle, but mostly the culture. One of many is their holidays and celebrations. I'm from Indonesia, so holidays such as Halloween aren't something I'm familiar with.

Growing up, I only know Halloween as this western celebration where people dress up and put on scary decorations all around. So being able to experience it was quite whimsical but it's definitely something memorable to say the least.

Socializing at the University of Pennsylvania

I'm an introvert. I can't start a conversation, and I really value my alone time, so I'm not expecting to find a close friend in a short time. However, I was pleasantly surprised and ecstatic when I met this girl named Kiena.

Kiena and I are quite different, different native countries, hobbies, and even majors. Kiena majored in computer science, while I majored in economics. However, despite being in totally different majors, we enjoyed hanging out and talking about our classes. Such as all the things Kiena has coded before, or how much the economics theory hurts my brain. We have also spent some time walking around the campus and having fun during my stay here so far.

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Reflective Commentary:

The writer has included a few linguistic choices which help elevate the blog as well as some to express the writer's excitement and anticipation of being a student at Penn. Starting off with the heading and the first sub-topic of the text, the word "nerds" or "nerdy" here is used to highlight a famous stereotype of Penn students, and since the writer is a Penn student then they are also a part of this stereotype. However, later on, the writer debunks this, saying that not all students there are nerdy to highlight the point that the stereotype doesn't apply to everyone there. Sentences such as “A  Disney character finally getting my happy ending after going through a devastating plot” and “A dream that I have been yearning for since middle school.” are used to emphasize the excitement the writer had felt, as well to give an effect where the reader can feel the writer’s anticipation of being in the university. 

Speaking about the structure, the blog is separated into 3 subchapters, where each chapter highlights a different aspect of the writer’s experience, starting from the excitement, to the culture shock, and finally socializing. This is done to simplify the blog, allowing readers to find key points they want to know more about, instead of reading the entire blog. Other than that, the structure allows the reader to stay engaged reading the blog as it is a different topic in each subtopic.