On Returning to Routine

It’s strange how quickly momentum shifts. One month I’m chasing sunsets over the Pacific, working with my startup team until 3 am, my days pulled forward by curiosity and caffeine. The next, I’m back on campus. All the lectures, deadlines, and the quiet rhythm of student life sliding into place like clockwork. The shift feels both grounding and surreal. There’s a particular stillness to being a student again. Mornings spent in lecture halls where the light hits the same way it always has, the soft murmur of people talking amongst themselves. My calendar is once again ruled by assignment and project deadlines, by due dates that seem both trivial and absolute. Some of it feels meaningless, like the kind of work that evaporates as soon as it’s graded. But maybe that’s part of the beauty. Not everything has to matter in order to matter. In between the problem sets and research sprints, I’ve also started to notice and appreciate just how much freedom this phase holds. There’s no company roa

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• Chloe Yan