A good and hard past few months before senior year

It’s been a while since I posted a blog post, and I’d like to think that a lot has changed in my life since then! So I figured I’d share some wisdom and reflections. I’ll first reflect on my junior year 2nd semester, then this past summer, and I’ll end with my thoughts for the future.

Firstly, my junior year 2nd semester was my redemption semester. After having THE WORST semester of my college career (junior 1st semester), I made a lot of smaller changes to my life to make sure that I didn’t repeat my semester, such as actually going to class and leaving my iPad at home in Buffalo (so I don’t get tempted to watch youtube all day). But in general, the biggest thing I changed was my approach to discipline.

I’ve always had a problem with knowing when to turn on and off discipline. So to be safe, the past couple of years, I’ve always had my discipline turned “on”. But when my junior 1st semester hit and my discipline turned off, I struggled to flip that switch again. To fix this issue, I began associating small things with “turning on” my discipline. This can be like showering in the morning, putting my contacts in, dressing nicely (look good, feel good!), or drinking coffee in the morning. These were psychological cues for me to turn on my discipline, then, once I got back to my apartment, the switch can flip off again. This also meant that I was basically treating school and research like a profession, which worked to my benefit.

Because of my ability to flip this switch, I got more mental breaks from research and felt much more recharged (well, as much as I could be as a college student). And because I got more mental breaks, my research productivity was super high, my grades were the best ever (all A’s), and I also spent a lot more meaningful time with my friends. And because I got back more time, I traveled to a conference in Denver and had a blast, went on a Chicago day trip with my friends, cooked a bunch of food and watched many movies, played basketball, and did many other small things for fun! All while publishing a paper, filing a patent, and winning both the Goldwater and Astronaut Scholarship. I think that my biggest lesson this semester was learning how to sustainably maintain a “high productivity”. I also learned how to walk away from work when I felt like my brain was shutting off. And so, I carried these lessons to my summer internship at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.

My internship summer was probably the most productive and fun summer I’ve ever had in my life. At APL, I worked on three different projects under Dr. Michael Wall: (1) scaling holographic quantum circuits, (2) quantum algorithms for computational fluid dynamics, and (3) quantum sensing for state estimation. All my projects have led to some form of a deliverable: (1) first-author paper out soon, (2) first-author paper under preparation, and (3) first-author internal memo to be distributed. I went into this summer without any experience in quantum algorithms, circuits, and sensors, and came out with so much knowledge that now compliments my experience in quantum hardware that I feel prepared for my PhD research. I also began waking up at 6:30am every weekday to study for the GRE and the Physics GRE, and on the weekends, I made significant progress on my graduate school applications (SOP and NSF GFRP applications). Waking up early was an adjustment I made since I tried studying late at night, and found out that I couldn’t get anything useful done after 8pm (also applies to nearly all aspects of my life besides working out). I also started reading nearly daily, got back into working out (since I tore my back, and got my full strength back in under 2 months), and started playing basketball nearly everyday.

At the same time, I also hung out with a ton of people all the time. With the APL interns, we watched a lot of movies, ate at a lot of restaurants (sushi, korean fried chicken, and more), and drove all around the APL campus (Shout out APL chillers!). They genuinely made the summer so much more bearable, especially when my mental state was completely destroyed from working on physics problems all day. I also hung out a lot in DC with friends, going to parties, clubs, exploring DC, and eating at a lot of really places (KBBQ, sushi, Molly tea, and many more). There would be a lot of times where I’d leave work on a Tuesday, then go straight to DC and try out Ethiopian food at a Michelin-starred restaurant. This meant that my summer life had quite a lot of diversity, which helped me escape my job (especially since I lived so close to APL!). So all in all, this summer helped sharpen the lessons I already learn in my Junior 2nd semester (which is good, that means that my habits are sustainable!), and continued to build on my discipline as a researcher.

Now, I’m writing this blog post on the way to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Gala, where my current flight there got delayed pretty badly, so I’m going to have to figure that out. (bruh.) Anyhow, this gala will definitely be an amazing end to this summer, and I’m really excited to present about my work there. I’m really excited and nervous about senior year, since my graduate school applications will be sent out by December, and I’ll hear back on decisions relatively soon. I also have to the take the Physics GRE! (bruh.) I’m also excited to bring my new-found discipline and work-life balance to Champaign, where I’m going to be working at APL, doing school, and finishing up graduate school applications. So I’ll be plenty busy this semester, and I’ll have a lot of time to hang out with people before we all inevitably part ways. I can feel that I’m definitely going to be challenged to balance work and life again (too many fun things in work and life, I have a great problem ngl), but this time, I feel prepared. I’ll keep y’all updated throughout senior year!