Day 0
I've never been one for blogging but I guess this year is as good a year to start as any. There's a lot going on in the world right now:
- The COVID-19 pandemic, not sure what more I can say about that.
- The intensification of what appears to be the Cold War of our generation.
Those are just two of the things I could scrape off the top of my head for now. If I'm being honest, I just don't have the energy to write out the laundry list of what 2020 has gifted to us. From a more personal angle, it's also been a pretty big year as well:
- I graduated from university. At least I think I did; I got sent someone else's diploma.
- I'll be starting graduate studies because I apparently can't get enough of school.
Writing this blog entry reminds me of the time as a kid when my parents suggested that I keep a journal. They told me "it'll be fun to look back at when you're older," which could have been true if I kept those entries. I also suspect that it was their way of keeping a very hyperactive child occupied so that they could go about what they needed to do.
Fast-forward over ten years, I think I'll try again. I don't think anyone will really read this so I'll be comfortable writing in a pretty relaxed manner.
This summer, I had the opportunity to return to Hootsuite to work again as an intern (living expenses during grad school aren't gonna cover themselves). If I'm being completely honest, there were more than a couple times when I thought "Why am I going back to school again?" The work was fun, the people were great, and I enjoyed the respect and the responsibilities that were expected of me.
All that said, grad school was something that I'd thought about from a very early point, I think somewhere in my 2nd year of university when I started working as a teaching assistant. I figure if I'm not going to do it now, then it's going to be harder for me in the future when I'm probably more settled down. I'll be going to UBC and working in the same lab that I did some research in as an undergrad. "Research" might be a bit of a stretch; I mostly just hung out and bothered a bunch of grad students (sorry Nick).
Choosing between Waterloo and UBC was a pretty difficult choice. I have to say that in the end, it came down to where I'd think I'd be a happier individual overall, and probably a bit of fear as well if I'm being honest. So here's to two more years of fun in the Software Practices Lab
I'll hopefully have something more to write about next week. I don't really have big plans for this blog/newsletter/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. If anything it'll be a log of what I felt during a given week of grad school or describe some cool new stuff I learn. We'll go from here.