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Harvard

This past week's game was definitely one for the history books. We ended up winning against Harvard in 5 overtimes.

Personal Updates

This past week was our break week following midterms week which I think was definitely helpful as we went to face one of our toughest opponents yet. I went into the week hoping to get ahead on some of my class work/readings and also make a dent in my thesis, but I was dealing with a virus that is going around campus and prioritized revocering before my game on Saturday instead. Given the ultimate outcome of the game, I think that this tradeoff was worth it. I was definitely fortunate that I happened to start feeling under the weather during a break week versus during classes or during midterms. Speaking of midterms, I also received my grades back this week. Overall I did decently well, and especially in the class that I was most worried about I ended up only missing the average by a few points. This was a sigh of relief as leaving the test I felt pretty bad about it considering that I mismanaged my time and only completed 3 of 4 problems. It is bittersweet because I did very well on the questions I was able to get to, and I know that if I was able to get to the last question and even put down anything, I definitely could have ended up with an A which would be a great position to be in going into the second half of the semester. I think that my strategy and game plan going into this semester has been largely successful, and I am excited to finish the second half even stronger while also cranking  away at my thesis once my season comes to a close.


My performance in the game was pretty decent I think. They were definitely one of the stronger, if not strongest opponents that we have faced yet, so it was good to rise to the challenge. There were definitely several plays where I did not perform at my best, but overall I think I had a positive game. As the end of my college football days grows nearer I feel like I will be able to continue to develop and play better as I will be less concerned about getting injured and can focus solely on leaving everything out there in each game. We have Cornell this coming week which I thought was my best game last season, and so I am excited to be back there and can hopefully have my best performance yet.

This past weekend was also our homecoming weekend which was a bigger deal this year than in years past for a number of reasons. With reunions being cancelled two years in a row, a good football season so far, and playing Harvard, several organizations took advantage of the likely influx of alumni coming and hosted events. This led to a good opportunity to see a lot of my old teammates and alumni that have graduated in the last several years. I also had my younger sister visit and several friends from town which was great. Socially things are definitely going well. The majority of the turbulence in my personal life has been sorted out which has been helpful psychologically. I was not really able to branch out and meet new people over last week mostly because it was break week and I was pretty much exclusively around my teammates all week. Even though I was around friends, I was actually able to have some deeper conversations with some friends than I have had otherwise which was refreshing and I think accomplishes the same goal.

Books/Other

I was hoping to do a lot more personal reading than I ended up doing this past week. I did restart a book that I partially had started back in August, but have not finished getting through it. I am about halfway through and will likely be able to finish it on our bus ride to Cornell this coming week. The book is on body language and some of the scientific basis for different behaviors that we show in different situations. I find it very interesting and it is not super intellectually taxing so it is a good book to throw on top of the other work that I have going on. I think that I will be able to finish it this weekend with my extra free time and the long bus rides. I also fell behind on the daily podcasts that I have been interested in, but should similarly be able to catch up this coming week with my additional time. I am going to need to get back into the rhythm of my weekly readings for classes now and make a definitive game plan for the end of the semester when I will have several essays to write.

Gratitude

For this week's gratitude post I definitely want to continue being consciously thankful for my physical health, but as it was homecoming and there were a lot of old friends and alumni that came back and visited for the game I will add that I am thankful for the connections that I have been able to make through the Princeton community. Harvard being my second choice in schools, it is not hard for me to imagine myself having gone there instead of Princeton. Obviously my life has been permanently shaped because I have gone to Princeton and I think that I am extremely grateful and thankful for this opportunity and glad that I made this decision. I have had certain relationships develop and friendships created that are very special, and while I likely would have some types of relationships no matter where I ended up, I am able to step back in this moment and appreciate all of the relationships that have come about through this decision. Also, it is nice knowing that I made the decision to come to Princeton for football given all of the success that we have had here, and the fact that we are 4-0 against Harvard in my four years here. 
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