Taking Inspiration

I always notice that the exchange students at school are more engaged, on average.

Perhaps a better framework for approaching school is to think like you're on exchange – this is your one semester to really embrace what it means to go to a school like Penn.

We are surrounded by objectively high-achievers and thus feel much less incentive to try, unless we have some intrinsic motivation to do well.

No wonder more than 70% of people in a lecture don't even bother talking (sometimes, I'm in this bucket).