Final Stretch
The date is April 4, 2021. It's the last month of my first "year" of grad school. As cliche as this sounds, I can't believe how fast time flew by. I spent a large chunk of my later time as an undergrad just hanging out in the lab where I'm now a grad student, and I always felt that people stayed for a pretty long time.
I'm not sure what made me feel that, but now I realize that grad school is actually pretty short. If all goes according to schedule (which I'm fairly certain won't, that's just the nature of things), I'll be finishing up my thesis next summer, and graduating in September 2022, exactly two years after I started. Actually, I'm fairly certain this won't be the case, since I'll be on leave for most of this summer in order to participate in an internship. Graduation is faraway in the future, so I'll stop thinking about it now, at least for a bit.
This month, I'll be wrapping up my research project for 508. I honestly can't believe how I survived that course, given that I didn't have a huge amount of experience in computer systems beyond an intermediate OS course I took during undergrad (also happens to be one of my lowest grades). That said, I enjoyed some of the paper I read in the class, and I think they've given me some insights into how the field of systems research evolved over time. If all goes well, Alison (my project partner) and I will be submitting the final version of our paper by the 30th, and I'll be free (subject to me passing 539).
COVID cases are on the rise again in BC, probably looking to be the worst they've ever been since the start of the pandemic. Most of the optimism I've had around the start of March when good news about vaccination was plentiful is now gone. Now it mostly feels like a race against rising cases and circulation of new variants to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. Something that concerns me is the rising incidence of the P1 variant that is reported to be circulating. From what I've read, this variant is far more transmissible and appears to cause a more severe illness, even in younger people. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next few weeks.
Besides all this doom and gloom, the weather has been pretty nice recently. I went outside today after being stuck inside for most of last week, and I honestly teared up a little when I felt the sun on my face, and not because the sun was in my eyes directly. I forgot how nice sunlight felt on my face. Hopefully the warmer weather means I can take the bike out more often.
Well, that's it for this week. I'll see you later.