So here I am, sitting in the library at my college, in a place far away from where I was at the beginning of this year, both in terms of physical location and location in the journey of life. Yes, I’ve come a long way; graduating high school is a bit of a change…
So, to make a long story short, I’m at Carnegie Mellon University to study electrical and computer engineering. Yes, I’m psyched to be at such a great school. My top two choices were Princeton and Harvard when I was applying, but I knew from the start that they were pretty much unattainable. I definitely think it’s a good thing that I didn’t get into Harvard; I wouldn’t have really been able to study ECE and would’ve probably stuck to just applied physics, and I can tell already that ECE is the right thing for me. Princeton probably would’ve been great, but oh well. Since I’ve come here (and spent a month already…) I’ve come to realize just how great CMU is. Sure, it’s a little nerdy and there could be more girls, but there’s still what your looking for as long as you’re willing to make some effort in looking for it.
Graduating high school was a really weird experience. It’s unbelievable how much closer I came to my friends during senior year. I still don’t understand how that works, as I was pretty tight with a lot of people to start. I’ve never been with a group of people that I’ve felt I’ve belonged to more, and that’s saying something. Saying goodbye was tough, especially for a few select people… but we all got through it. I was lucky in that I was one of the first people to leave for some reason so I could get most of my goodbyes done in one go.
Orientation was also pretty crazy. For those of you that don’t know, CMU has a really intense orientation process that takes a whole week. The result is not only a full week of partying but also the actual formation of friendships, which (at least for me) was sorta crazy considering that I was becoming tight with some people that I had met only days before. My floor is much closer than most; we all hang out together pretty much 24/7. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing (especially since I’m in an all male dorm), but for better or worse it has given me a good group of people to hang out with.
I’ve also tried to become at least somewhat involved in politics by joining the CMU chapter of Students for Barack Obama. I’ve been diehard Obama supporter from the start, so you can imagine that I was pretty happy with the results of the primaries. However, now we’re in the national election, and there’s another opponent to face. The idea of a third Bush term a.k.a. John McCain as president really scares me. When you look at his policies as well as general life decisions that show his character, you realize that McCain is pretty much a madman. Palin isn’t exactly any better, and I my opinion she’d be the weakest VP pick in history if she wasn’t a woman. At the moment I’m a bit worried about the latest desperate maneuver that McCain pulled off (suspending his campaign to “focus on economic issues” i.e. skip out on debating some actual issues with Obama tomorrow), but at this point it looks like it might be backfiring. After all, how can we expect a man to be president when he has to suspend all regular activity just to address one pressing issue? The country does’t work like that.
Anyways, now that I’ve made one non-New Years entry hopefully I can get back in a blog-writing mode. Honestly at the moment it’ll probably just all be politics, but hey, there’s nothing wrong with that, right?
Permalink | Posted Thu, 25 Sep 2008 at 9:10:58 PM ESTWow. It’s 2008. Crazy.
This is the year that I've been thinking about since I was little. As soon as I entered kindergarten, I began to be associated with the “Class of 2008”. At the party I was at last night, as soon as the ball dropped and we all cheered, toasted, drank, hugged, et cetera, it dawned on me—it's graduation year.
There are some things that one knows are coming your entire life, and therefore have looked forward to as long as can be remembered. Graduation has been one of those things, at least for me. Last year the truth of its existence started to dawn upon me, as I talked about in my 2007 entry. Now I know that it’s coming, I just don’t know exactly how it’s going to be.
That said, I’m psyched for college, other than the leaving my friends part of course. It’s going to be nice to have true control over my life. All of my apps are in, so now we play the waiting game. I’ll probably be pulling my hair out by March.
It’s sort of a shame that I actually didn’t update this blog last year, as I honestly do enjoy it once I remember and get down to it. Probably would have helped my writing a bit too, but oh well. It’s a new year! Have fun and stay safe everybody. If you’re a member of the Class of 2008 as well, have fun and make sure you live it up; I know I will!
Permalink | Posted Tue, 1 Jan 2008 at 3:25:37 PM ESTAh, so it looks like 2007 is here. What an amazing year 2006 was. The first half was devoted to my sophomore year, probably the best year of my life. The summer was filled with fun and relaxation. And the last half truly flew by, and I have to say I’m happy with how it went as well. Junior year has always been something which I treated with apprehension; now that it is actually here I’m finding that I seem to be mature and trained enough to cope with the stress and workload. It’s an interesting feeling, finally realizing that your high school career will most likely be quite successful and that you have achieved much of what you’ve been striving for throughout your life so far.
That said, I wish I could say that I have been looking forward to 2007 as much as I have looked forward to 2006 and the years before it. The realization that I only have another year and a half of high school left is truly starting to kick in. The idea of leaving everyone behind, of never having this experience again, and of never having these chances again is truly daunting for me. The last year has definitely brought me much closer to my friends, very greatly so in fact. The fact that in June of 2008 I am going to have to start to say goodbye to them is quite depressing for me. Honestly I’m starting to wonder how I’m going to cope. However, at the same time I’m trying not to worry too much about it, since I truly trust myself and my ability to deal with stress and issues.
What bothers me the most at the moment is that suddenly, for the first time I can remember, when I look into the future I am not anxious for it to arrive. As youngsters we all cannot wait to grow up, cannot wait to get out of our parents’ houses, and cannot wait to enter the adult world. It seems I am finally growing up, or at least maturing, to the point where I realize that life is not perfect in the future. I’m sure those around me are also starting to think about the impending bittersweet end to our current careers, or at least will start to do so in the near future; I’m sure this is the nature of the event and something that all individuals who pass through such systems face in the end. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really make it much easier to deal with.
Perhaps there’s something wrong with the fact that I’m more worried at the moment with saying goodbye than about where I’m going to after high school. Perhaps I have far too much trust in my own abilities and fate. But this is who I am, and I embrace myself. I am who I am. I just wish I had more control over what I stay being.
This is probably my first real blog post (actually it feels quite like a LiveJournal post right now). I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve talked about my personal life even backhandedly on here, and it is definitely the first time I’ve talked about something which isn’t completely happy or carefree. However, writing all this down really does have a therapeutic effect; I’m starting to see why people write daily blogs like this. Thanks for reading.
Anyways, enough of that depressing stuff. 2007 is here, and we must greet it with full force and optimism if we are striving for success. This will be the year I take the SATs, visit colleges, and write applications. I might even know where I am going to college by the end of this year. A tremendously important, busy, and hopefully fun year is ahead of me, and other than the aforementioned worries I am truly looking forward to it (although I’m sure this post doesn’t make it seem like it). I wish all of you out there a happy new year and a happy, safe, and prosperous future. This writing has been truly relaxing for me, perhaps I will actually update the blog more this year. Thanks for sticking around with me. ;)
Permalink | Posted Mon, 1 Jan 2007 at 3:48:37 AM ESTWow, looks like I went almost another year without posting. Strange how that works out, eh?
Well, let’s see what happened in the last year… well, no major upgrades. I’m running Ubuntu Edgy right now, with an XFCE desktop managed by Beryl. It’s quite an amazing experience. Possibly I’ll try and upload a screencap video to Youtube or something.
Robotics is going well, with the kickoff in a week. It’s going to be awesome, I love build season. This year’s game hint is quite cryptic, so I really don't know what to expect, even more so than last year. Some of the elements of the image look like they could be water… that could get interesting. I’m pretty sure that it isn't an aqueous game though, since it would be almost impossible logistically for FIRST to put on. We’ll see though.
Anyways, at least I got around to this a little bit earlier than last year. Seriously, I’ll try to post some more in the coming year, but I’m sure you can see how that has gone so far. Hmm, possibly I might get in another post this year? We’ll see.
Permalink | Posted Sat, 30 Dec 2006 at 2:52:22 PM ESTWell, here I am again. It looks like it’s that time again. Another new year has come. Who knows what it will bring.
Oh, and some things I forgot to mention before: first of all, the new layout isn’t even started yet. Still haven’t found an idea that I really like (or at least I haven’t been able to bring the ideas in my head into hard pixels). Also, the robotics season kicks off on Saturday (the 7th), so I’ll have all my time taken up by that soon. And I can’t wait. I’m sure you all know how it is. Oh yeah, and I’m obsessed with synths even though I don’t have one (yet). Hopefully I will have one soon though. :D Here comes another expensive hobby. Oh, and that reminds me, I built a sick new Athlon 64 rig in September. I’ll try and update the About page with the specs soon.
See? I told you I would forget some stuff. I’ll try and post things as I remember to catch this thing up to me. After all, what’s the point of having a blog if it doesn’t tell anything about me?
Well anyways, a happy new year to you all, wherever you are. I hope that 2005 was great for you and that 2006 will be even better. Peace out.
Permalink | Posted Sun, 1 Jan 2006 at 12:03:33 AM EST