Hello everyone,

I am Shahan graduating this year as a CS major. And I am glad you are all here.

So today we will talk about curves math and curves.

So..I am going to be talking about my 4 year journey today from receiving the admission packet to
hypothetically receiving the diploma.

And this curve right here shows my GPA curve..and well if you differentiate this nice parabola and solve
it, you'll reach my sophomore year.

This straight line is very deceiving and is more like this with seemingly no end point as of yet.

But well talking about curves, this parabolic curve defines my experience in CMU really well.

So how did it all start?

Like any other desi high school graduate who has been the star of his campus, I also applied to all the Ivy
Leagues in the U.S. MIT, HARVARD, PRINCETON, YALE, DARTMOUTH, and like most of the desi high
school graduates got all my rejections over a period of 10 hours. I was literally devastated. Desperate to
get admission anywhere, I applied to Qatar University, and well.. I hope I got in. I still haven't received
my decision and I tried everything from emailing them and not getting any reply to calling them and not
being able to understand because they only spoke in arabic. So well there I was, having no safety school,
nothing at my table and so I kind of had to take a gap year.

Next year, I applied to a college in Pakistan, got in as a CS major and was happy as it was, but not really.
My brother saw that, and asked me to apply to Carnegie Mellon Qatar as he got to know about the
financial aid program in Qatar from his friend. That was one of the face palm moments. Because I had
heard this name before. What had happened was that I remembered that when I went for my MIT
Interview, my interviewer asked me what I wanted to do and I said CS, so she asked me why I did not
apply to Carnegie Mellon as her son was doing CS in CMU. And I could not care less about her son or
some Mellon school she was talking about. I wanted to go to MIT.

So here's your first lesson folks i.e. Listen. Often times in conversations, all we care about is what we are
going to say next and in that process, we just ignore what the other person is saying to us. So be a good
listener.
After I got my admission letter from CMU, I locked myself in a room, jumped around like a kangaroo and
after that I prayed 2 rakat nafil and told my mom. Soon I emailed MIT, PRINCETON Yale and MIT to send
me my rejection letters for I was already preparing on how I would lecture my kids when they fail.

So far here I was. Happy. But then came the Spring of Freshmen year where I was taking GTI and doing
poorly and I applied to IMPAQT, Service Trip and CDA job. And I got more rejections, and again all on
one day. There is something with rejections - they all stick together. I remember I called Nawal and
Sampriti and cried in the Coffee Shop for an hour - the first time I cried after long. But they say things
you lose have a way of coming back to you.. so next year, I applied to all three things and got into
everything. So here's your second lesson folks i.e. in my favorite author's words: "it is impossible to live
without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in
which case you fail by default"

Talking about IMPAQT, one thing CMU and IMPAQT taught me is the understanding of cultural
exchange. This picture is an accurate depiction of that.

This is a little extreme example, but serves the purpose for lesson 3 i.e. sometimes you'd have to deal
with other cultures which are different from yours, you need to do things outside of your comfort zone
and you need to respect that as much as you can.

So far here I was..not too bad.. But then "things happened" in the spring of sophomore year - things
always happen and these "things" brought me to my minima. But at this point, there are always those
people, friends, professors and staff who surround you with their positive energy, and pull you out of
those. In my case these were Yain and Joseph. These are the people who helped me all along and stuck
with me despite of such a drama I was. For people who know me, I am a big drama at anything. I think a
lot. I talk a lot. Especially, when it comes to going out - I am strict about my rules of sleeping and timing
and not going out late, etc. But despite all that, these people stuck with me. So thank you.

But there were many others. Hira, Saeeda, Posha, Sharjeel and Malath. Thank you for always sticking
around, listening to my lame blabber, complains about the campus and professors. And for always
looking after me.

Thank you to Sannan, Arsal, Ahmed, Qasim, Juan, Talha, Eman, and Maria for hanging out with me, for
listening to my lame jokes and for just being around me near the senior table or in the food court in
general.

And again this list is not exhaustive. Thank you to all my friends who have helped me get through these
4 years time to time.
There is one thing though that hasn't changed and has remained constant across the 4 years. Can
anyone guess what? My iPad. My iPad has helped through and through whether it is for advice or for
emotional support. Whether it is to proofread by essays or to just hang out when I am bored. Whether I
need to take good snap chat stories or want to eat out. Anything I need or need to tell someone, I tell it
to my ipad And of course I am not talking about my iPad afterall, I am really talking about Vaneeesa.
Thank you for all you have done.

After friends I am thankful to my Professors. I remember I was struggling through a semester and
wanted to drop a machine learning course, so I went to my professor, Professor Bhiksha, and told him
that I want to drop the course, please tell me I am doing the right thing. He said No you are not doing
the right thing. I said, No, Professor. Thats not what I want to hear, I want you to assure me I am
doing the right thing. And he said You are not. Then he asked me to walk with him to the green spine,
and said I know the semester is hard, but I also know how important this course is to you. The reason
why you are dropping is not because you dont like it, but because you are scared. So dont be. If you
need help, I will help you. You need extension, I will give it to you. And then he pat me on the back.

I decided not to drop the course, and instead got a good grade on it. And so to our professors, especially
Professor Bhiksha, Rita, Professor Farooqi, Professor Saquib, Prof. Harras, Prof. Selma, to Kevin, Amie,
Dalia, and everyone else who has been part. Thank you.

And so talking about curves, here I am on this part of the curve as of yet.

To my juniors - my little babies. If there is one thing you could take away from my speech today, then it
is this: "There are a lot of people around who are at their local minima. Pull them out of there. If you
notice something absurd with someone, ask. Ask again if they are alright. Be kind to others. Respect
each other. Pull each other up instead of pushing each other down. We are all struggling through lives,
but let's not struggle because of each other.

Finally to the graduating class. We dont realize how much we actually change overtime due to our
experiences. We like to think were the same person, but we dont notice how much kinder weve
gotten, how much more aware we have become of the world, and how much more weve learned to
accept each other. Its only after five years from now, that we will look back at these years and realize
how much we have grown, how much we have matured, how much we have learnt. Tossing off our hats
will mark the end of our journey at CMU, but remember that we will wear many other hats in the future,
we will have many other experiences. This curve is just our 4 years. But life is more like a sinocide curve.
But whichever part of the curve we are at, whatever things we are doing in that part, lets make sure to
learn while we are at it, make sure we help others and more than anything have fun while doing so.

Thankyou.