Hello, my name is Philena Liu and I'm currently a freshman at MIT. In high school, I spent much of my time with the math team. Not only was math interesting, but it came with its own special, close-knit community that I love so much. Through collaborating with others on challenging problems, playing card games (the best source of fun) during breaks, and overall doing random things for the heck of it, I've learned and experienced so much -- and I owe it all to the math team. With that being said, I'm planning on majoring in course 18C, Mathematics with Computer Science.
In my free time, I like to draw (and more recently, animate!). I'm interested in design, especially, which is why I've taken to learning website development. Though I haven't done as much art as I would have liked to in high school, I hope to artistically vomit more in college with Borderline! Ever since quarantine, I've realized that drawing has helped me appreciate the simple -- oftentimes overlooked -- pleasures in life, and it has taught me to slow down a little and take a few deep breaths whenever I'm feeling stressed.
I also love badminton! Though I'm fairly bad at badminton (haha, get it?), it feels amazing to hit the birdie perfectly center with the racket. And being on the badminton team in high school was an amazing experience that gave me so many memories: cheering each other with hand hearts, bringing snacks and accidentally eating 5 Fiber One bars, ukulele/speaker jamming on the buses to meets, and almost-crying while being comforted by teammates. Playing a sport is vitalizing, but being on a sports team is a whole lot rewarding.
As for the more informal things about me: I love kpop, kdramas, cdramas, kvariety, cvariety, anime, etc. I perhaps spend way too much time watching shows than need be, but we don't worry about that. I've also recently been immersed into the Marvel and DC universe! Still waiting on the next season of The Flash!