一件小事／A small mess
这事儿有后续的，但是我没发出来。再说吧。
我妈叫我申暑校，我申了斯坦福，被录取了，然后她叫我不要去。虽然她的第一反应通常被证明是错的，但是我就是气不过要讲讲。
My mom let me apply for some summer schools. I applied for Stanford and was accepted. Then she told me not to go. Although her first reaction has often proved to be wrong, I am still angry and have to talk about it.
事情是这样的。
我不知道自己想不想读博，但是她一直想要我去读博。
中国人读博第一步：套磁。
我妈套磁第一步：申暑校／交换。好呗，反正我暑假也不想回家，就随便申了两个目测不太可能要我的。
中国人读博第二步：找中介。
我妈火急火燎找了中介，结果现在斯坦福暑校要我了，伦敦政经申了三门课，有一门也要我了（刚看到的，还没跟我妈讲），，，我有点不知道怎么反应，但是我是想去的。
我妈：你这样会延毕的啦！不要去！
也是我妈：你是超人！你没有什么事做不到的！
我无话可说。
This is the thing.
I have forever been not sure if I want to attend PhD, but she always
wants me to.
Step 1 for Chinese to PhD: prospective student email.
Step 1 for my mom: summer school / exchange. Well, I don’t want to go
back home during the summer anyways, so I applied for two random schools
that are not likely to admit me.
Step 2 for Chinese to PhD: find an agency.
My mom hurried to sign an contract with the agency. And now that I am
accepted to Stanford Summer Session and 1/3 of the LSE Summer School…I
do not know how to react, but I want to go.
My mom: You will not be able to graduate in two years lah! Don’t go!
Also my mom: You are Superman! You can do everything!
I am speechless.
附我给斯坦福写的小作文：
Attached is my personal statement for Stanford:
Prompt: Stanford students are known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or experience that you found intellectually engaging. The statement may be a maximum of 300 words in length and must be written in English.
Being a social person has been a huge challenge for me. And yet, a major
source of my creativity comes from people — interacting or simply
observing them.
During the last year in college, I developed a hobby to walk down the
streets and to look at everyone. Not just walking, for hours, crossing
multiple districts along underground lines. The initial purpose was to
cure my anxiety, but as soon as I got more engaged, my brain started to
process all the information automatically. I found myself reasoning
about people on the streets, their activities, mood, and even
background. It was more or less a meditation, but instead of reaching
inwards I searched outwards, and instead of resting my body, I kept
moving. Oftentimes after the walking, the album on my phone was full of
snapshots, and my mind full of new ideas about essays and, at that time,
my bachelor’s thesis.
The thesis was a formalized analysis of human behaviour in terms of
self-consciousness, highly inspired by my fellow humans. In addition to
an economics student, through years of experience of a self-proclaimed
photographer and blogger, I found the representation of wisdom and
intellect sparkling in the tiniest places like greetings and coffee
break conversations. They are not even slightly less valuable than in
papers or discussion at conferences.
I wish I were more sensitive to these forms of daily intellect, part of
the reason why I keep training the little anthropologist and artist me
in my heart, why I never stop walking from countries to countries. Would
you like to be my next stop, Stanford?