-Tatiana Tagle, MATTIP student from Austria

Do you know that physical sensation that accompanies a burst of joy? No, not the butterflies in the stomach, something lighter, almost like bubbles. It is your body telling you “This is good, this is important” in a way that you cannot ignore.   

On Thursday, only a week into the semester, right before one of my classes, I got stuck in a work meeting that ran 15 minutes over. This devoured all my time to walk to the monastery. Luckily, our teacher is very understanding and granted us the option to join the class online if needed. Having completed my BA during the pandemic and spending a summer doing an intensive Sanskrit course in Mexico, online classes still felt like the rule rather than the exception. I took his offer and joined online. 

Once the class concluded, I called a friend to see where she was planning to have lunch. I met her at our favorite dhal bhat place, and to my delight, almost the whole class was there. The recent online class was still very fresh in my experience, and the contrast between the online experience and hanging out with my classmates over lunch gave me that very physical sensation I was talking about of effervescent joy. Then I realized how much I had missed these casual, off-class moments during the pandemic. Because who can understand you better than the people with whom you share almost identical challenges and goals? 

Being back on campus is a thrill, especially when you have an amazing group like mine. I just started the TTIP MA program, and I couldn’t be more excited to spend the next two years with my kind and brilliant classmates. Every class, every reading, and every discussion feels very relevant. Actually, the study as a whole feels profoundly meaningful.  

I can hardly believe how lucky I am to be on this journey. Thank you to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and all the RYI faculty and staff for making this possible!