I have a policy when it comes to rating experiences: never rate experiences until they’re over, only in retrospect, because you’ll most certainly hate it at the time if you’re rating it in the first place. I remember the councilors saying that high school is going to be some of the best four years of my life. I was a freshman then. Now I’m done, out of high school, done with the wonderful land of free education. It’s been an interesting four years to say the least. There’ve been ups and downs, but overall it’s been an awesome ride.
I can’t say it will be the best years of my life since I have still a long life to live ahead of me, but they were right about one thing: you will change more than you know and so will your friends. When you first enter as a freshman, the counselors make you fill out a questionnaire with some random questions about yourself. Four years later, they show it to you again just to prove their point about how much you’ve changed.
As a freshman I was timid and shy around strangers and socially inept at times. Now… I think I’m just socially inept. Two out of three isn’t too bad. I’ve become a somewhat competent technologist too, but I’ll save that for another blog someday. My philosophy on life has changed significantly for reasons I don’t remember at the moment. It goes something like this: overcome one hurdle at a time; when you knock down, look back to see what you did wrong, but focus on getting over the next hurdle. More recently, I developed another when I had an introspective moment this year: don’t care so much about what people think.
Thinking back, I can remember the many different phases I went through, particularly this year, where I behaved and thought differently in each. Sometimes the transition between each phase was gradual and at other times it would be quite sudden.
The friends you have as a freshman may not be the same friends you have as a senior. The reality is that although you may hold onto a few close friends all the way through high school, many of them will change and you will make new ones along the way. I met most of the people I hang out with now in my junior year: Luke, Abbi, Melissa, Sadie, Brian, Julia. Interestingly enough I got to know most of you through IB Physics. Matt and Brett, my homies, my partners in crime, you guys are awesome. We’ve been making ruckus together for all four years. Rock on at OSU and try not to get into too much trouble.
I’ve learned to appreciate the immeasurable value of mentors in one’s life. At the time you don’t think much of it, but afterwards you appreciate how much time they’ve set aside to make sure you succeed. I’m not sure what motivates them, but it is a gift that exceeds all others. I have been fortunate enough to have two mentors during my time at Gresham. The first is Stephen Scannell who without him, there would be neither InvenTeams nor FIRST Robotics for me. The second is John Walker, who has imparted many words of wisdom and helped me realize, perhaps, the human side of technology. If I ever write a book about my life, both of you will most certainly get a shout-out. It’s been an honor.
I mercilessly teased some of the lower classmen about how many days of high school they have left (actually, I only talk to one so you know who you are), but part of me is envious of him. A small part of me doesn’t want to let go. There are a lot of people I don’t talk to much outside of school. Previous summers have always been fairly easy to cope with. I think part of the reason for that is that I knew that I would get to see everyone again in the fall. But this summer is different because we’re all headed off in different directions, or at least many of us will be. We were all traveling the same road for a while, but it is nearing the time where we all must choose our own path and follow our own destiny. Perhaps they will converge again at some point, or at least cross.
Posted on June 1, 2008 in Life, School, Uncategorized
I had been having a bit of trouble deciding where I want to go for college as some of you may know. I was torn between UCLA and Carnegie Mellon. I had been researching each school for sometime and trying to figure out what mattered to me the most. UCLA is on the west coast located in sunny Los Angeles while Carnegie Mellon is on the east coast in Pittsburgh. I would say that’s a bit of a contrast in location, but the differences don’t end there. I won’t discuss all the different factors that influenced my decision. I was undecided and that’s all you really need to know.
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I decided where to go in English class of all places. My teacher passed out note cards so that people could write what college they were going to and stick it on the door of the classroom for everyone to see. By that time I had already researched everything from recreational activities to how the computer science program is structured. I doubted there was much else I could find out about the schools without actually visiting, which I couldn’t do due to cost of travel and lack of time. So I’m sitting at my desk with a blank note card in front of me and I think to myself “Ah, what the hell. Now is a good time as any other.”
I wrote Carnegie Mellon on my note card and proudly stuck it on the door. 
Posted on April 18, 2008 in Life, School
I don’t think I have mentioned on here that I have been participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition this year. We had talked about doing it last year when we finished InvenTeams and I was asked to join drafted. I had no intention of participating at the beginning of the year because I would be busy with college applications, scholarships, and other senior stuff I need to get done in order to go to graduate and go to college. In retrospect though, I think the last eight weeks have been pretty damn fun.
To be honest, I didn’t think we would be able to make a robot in six weeks. We knew nothing about robotics, didn’t have the proper tools, and the team as a whole seemed like a ragtag group of freshmen and sophomores who were just looking for some free food. Many people left after the first few meetings and didn’t come back. All I have to say to those people is that I understand why they left. We weren’t doing much in the beginning, but I feel the need to say that they missed out on what I truly believe is one of the most unique experiences you can have in high school. Every school has football, basketball, swimming, mock trial, band, etc. but not every school has a FIRST Robotics team. Not everyone has the opportunity to build a robot in six weeks and pit it against other robots in a competition.
To the people who stuck with the team through all six weeks, I couldn’t be more proud of you guys. I didn’t think we could do it, but we pulled through. We had a working robot by the end of the competition. That’s not to say there weren’t problems though. There were a lot of things the team could have done better, myself included, but for a rookie team, I think we did a phenomenal job.
Our robot wasn’t quite finished when we shipped it off to the Memorial Coliseum. Fortunately they give you an entire day before the competition to get your robot into working condition and do a few practice matches. We didn’t get our robot ready in time to compete properly because we were all racing to get our robot to pass safety inspection. We didn’t actually pass until the morning of the competition and we did not get to test for problems. All day Friday, our robot suffered problems ranging from power issues to drive train failure. What impressed me while I was working on the robot was that no one gave up despite the robot having failed five times in a row while in competition—sometimes the robot didn’t move at all. The team’s resilience and determination and clever improvising impressed me more than anything else. Also impressive was everyone’s willingness to help. Despite being in competition, all the teams were more than willing to help other teams get their robots into working condition. Special thanks to the Team 1359 Scalawags for giving us a tremendous amount of help.
I was the driver for our team, so I didn’t get to watch much of the semifinals and I was too focused on driving the robot to notice the crowd. During the finals though, I can say with confidence that the crowd had enough energy to rival anything I have seen at a high school basketball or football game if not surpass it. Some team actually started a mosh pit that I might have joined during a six minute timeout…
It actually kind of saddens me that I won’t get to be part of next year’s Robotics team since they have a lot more experience and knowledge now. I suppose there will be other interesting things to do in college, but I still wish I had another year to do FIRST just to show what Gresham is capable of. Maybe I’ll comeback to mentor next year’s team. If not, I have faith that it will do well in FIRST, InvenTeams, or whatever program they decide to do next year. Rock on.
Posted on March 3, 2008 in School, Technology
You should be proud of yourself if you’ve decided to take on IB. All those upperclassmen weren’t kidding when they were complaining about all the homework they had, or how little sleep they got that night. However, going through IB supposedly prepares you for college where it gets even worse. In the mean time, here are a few tips to get you through in one piece.
- Power naps
Starting around the second half of junior year, I started coming home exhausted almost every day. I’ve found the trick is not to force myself to stay up so I don’t waste time, but to go ahead and take a nap. Chances are you probably won’t get much done half asleep anyways, so it’s better just to catch a few Z’s. However, in the interest of saving time, because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, power naps are the way to go. The idea of a power nap is quality over quantity. Short twenty minute power naps can rejuvenate you and in the end, increase your productivity.
- Coffee
Coffee is the life-force of all IB students. Live by it. Caffeine is the real driving force behind it, but it might as well be synonymous with coffee. Soda has caffeine in it too, but avoid it all costs! Soda has an insane amount of sugar in it and although that may sound like it would keep you going for a good while, it won’t. Sugar will make you crash like the Hindenburg and it will rot your teeth which is never good. Stick to coffee, but don’t over do it. One cup in the morning should get you into the afternoon.
- Listen to music
It’s not secret that IB can get really stressful really quickly. However, there are a few ways to un-bake your brain. My personal favorite is “Get lost in great music.” Find some music that you really like and immerse yourself in it. I mean, really get lost in it. Get your air guitar groove on and jam away. For me, a few minutes rocking out to Ok Go or The Fratellis does wonders to relieve stress.
- Play video games
Video games are fun and with the advent of the Wii, there’s pretty much something for everyone. Not only are they fun to play, but they also reduce stress. It’s okay to spend a few minutes saving the planet from an alien race, finishing off your enemies with a curb stomp, or jamming your way to rock stardom on a plastic guitar. But keep in mind the name of the game is to reduce stress, not compound it, so don’t attempt that one level you’ve been trying to beat for ages or hard mode on Guitar Hero.
Perhaps the most important thing you need to know is that you are not alone. That does not mean little green men are going to abduct you, but that there are plenty of other people in the same situation. Call, IM, text, or whatever your friends when you’re stuck on a calculus problem or you need someone to proofread your TOK paper. Then go to sleep and be prepared to wakeup in a few hours to do it all over again.
Posted on December 31, 2007 in School
