This blog post is about you.

This blog post is about you. Ive been tooling all night.  Im so hosed.  IHTFP.  I just pulled an all-nighter finishing three psets. They say you can tell a lot about a culture from its language.  And while Inuits might not really have 200 words for snow, here at MIT we sure do have a lot of words relating to stress. MIT is a difficult place but you already knew that.  The classes are hard.  The psets, harder.  The exams, stressful.  And thats okay.  You dont come to a school like MIT looking to coast through all four years. But sometimes, it just all becomes so overwhelming.  That  combination of classes, psets, UROPs, sports, and trying to maintain a healthy social life spirals out of control, and your self-confidence drops faster than your grades.  It happens to everyone sooner or later, if The Techs special issue on stress is anything to go by. (If you havent read it yet, you should.  Its a superb piece of journalism). I think these two survey results are the most telling: When you look at those results from an objective non-MIT viewpoint, its kind of incredible.  MIT is a place where top minds from across the world come together to learn and work together, and yet 70% of students believe they are average or below average, and 80% of students dont believe their accomplishments have been particularly impressive. You dont need an MIT education to know those perceptions cant possibly be correct. Im just a freshman.  I dont have years of experience to go back on, and I cant reassure you about the next 3.5 years because I havent been through them yet.  All I can tell you is what Ive observed. To everyone Ive met over the past three months: You are, without a doubt, the single most talented and interesting group of people Ive ever met.  You are elite hackers, you are physics whizzes, you are pipette grandmasters.  You are fantastic teammates and loyal friends.  You are future scientists, researchers, engineers, writers, dreamers, and no doubt some of you will be in fields I cant even describe because they dont exist yet.  When I think about all the accomplishments youve achieved and what youll do in the next few years, Im awed.  Every day I can count myself as one of you, Im humbled.  You are awesome.  A pset grade cant change that.  A midterm grade cant change that.  Nothing can change that. Weve got two weeks left before winter break.  Lets do this.