Sandie Cheng '12 offers 10 life lessons for readers to ponder.

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Sandie Cheng '12 remedies her anxiety about the future by taking inspiration from someone who chose to follow his dreams.

Sandie Cheng '12 considers how her life aligns with Julia Roberts'.

“No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.” — Antoine de Saint Exupery

It’s a sunny and cloudless day in Ithaca, and I’m sitting amidst a crowd of students gathered in the Arts Quad. The usual cold and unwelcoming atmosphere of Cornell melted away with the rest of winter, as spring timidly approaches us. People are laughing, smiling and absorbing all the warmth that the day brings them. Colored balloons float into the air, weaving their way around the Frisbees and footballs being passed between friends. Despite the recent tragedies that have occurred, the rest of us continue with the ebbs and flow of life — with more vigor and spirit than ever.

As winter casts its dark shadow over Cornell, I can’t help but feel more suffocated and restless than usual. The overcast skies accompanied by gray faces make Ithaca seem even more hopeless and depressing than it has ever been. My bright pink backpack, bought only to contrast the colorless campus, is now dirtied and has tinges of brown. For my own sanity, I bought a bright highlighter-yellow jacket because I couldn’t take being just another gray mass in the snowy tundra. I told my friends that I was going for, “loud,” as I bought a bright neon shirt and a big flower headband at Forever 21. I also bought these fabulous purple heels, but I guess that’s a story for another time.