Trying to navigate to the one right room out of a hundred felt like trying to find the exit of a labyrinth. Fortunately, in one of the hallways, I ran into another student in my Master’s program, and we picked up some others along the way. On this first day of orientation (one out of three), I not only got to know about 30 new faces but also learned a new word: Imposter Syndrome. It means that you are scared that others could find out you are actually not as smart as you appear to be, so are feeling like a fraud. When I first heard that, I thought: ” I don’t have that, I know I belong here to this program” Hah. I knew that exactly until the moment my cohort and other graduate students told their stories, or when we were called future leaders and role models at orientation 3/3 (where I, by the way, won tickets for the Harvard vs. Yale game! YAY!)

Now, 2 months later it sometimes still feels as surreal to be at Harvard, as it did when I first stepped foot on the green, trim area, looking at the massive marble pillars of the white building of Harvard Medical School (Gordon Hall) in front of me. I arrived on campus 2 hours earlier to pick up my ID, scared that getting lost somewhere in the city or in the unfamiliar halls might cause me to be late for orientation. Fortunately, I didn’t get lost and fortunately, the student ID didn’t look as bad as the one Salzburg. (I had spent my time as a student hiding the ID within my purse after my mom asked me why I hadn’t retaken the photo, my best friend secretly took pictures of it, and security guards laughed for five minutes about before letting me into a club. Yep, fortunately, this one was different.