I can’t believe that I’ve already reached the last semester of my undergraduate adventure, one filled with growth and joy. As I’m slowly wrapping my mind around the fact that it’s only a matter of months before I move on from Penn State, I’ve done some reflecting on the steps I’ve taken over the past few years. Computer Science is such a fast changing field, so fast that my course work and technical knowledge gained here is just about the least important of all the experiences I’ve had. Learning will never stop as I continue to keep up with the rapidly changing technological and societal landscape, both in my areas of expertise and broadly as a whole. Conveniently, I have already fulfilled all of the requirements needed to receive both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degrees last semester, so this semester was planned with a very open-ended mindset. What can I do with a semester’s worth of time at a university with a huge diversity in course listings? Definitely not take more technical courses. I have an entire career to spend honing my skills as an engineer, but what I likely won’t be able to do is take classes on unfamiliar subjects from world-class faculty, faculty that have dedicated their entire lives to the fields that they are in. I decided to spend this semester trying out new experiences. Oh, and also finishing my thesis.
Between classes such as scuba, nutrition, and photography, I will also be savoring the time spent with people I’ll see much less frequently after graduation. After seven iterations of full schedules and very little free time, I’m hoping that I can spend a lot of genuine time with those around me, and be more present than before. Additionally, I will be making a big push with the startup that I co-founded, to make sure that the work we’ve put in over the past three years will finally manifest itself in the form of a public release. My blogs this semester will look largely as they did before, but I may use a few here or there to reflect on what this new attitude brings into my life.
The upcoming post-graduation steps may usher in more uncertainty than I’ve ever experienced in my life, and I’m more than excited to use this final semester to its fullest potential. After all, the ability to connect with people is at the very core of leadership. Or maybe I’m just being lazy, who knows.
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