It is safe to say that the Fall 2011 semester was by far the hardest of my college career. The combination of difficult upper-level mechanical engineering classes with a foot surgery and all the physical therapy that came with it made for a busy schedule. Between classes, hours of homework, and hours of physical therapy and working out, there simply wasn’t enough time in the day. Hence, I had to stay up til 2 or 3 am three to four nights a week trying to get everything done. And while it was decently miserable going through this week after week, looking back at what I accomplished, I’m definitely proud. I managed some excellent grades, and in the process learned an incredible amount of information about solving linear control systems, programming and solving problems with MATLAB, designing and carrying out a research project, and using SolidWorks for FEA analyses. While I definitely wouldn’t want to go through it again, I have to say that those late nights in the computer lab and library were worth it.
Looking forward, the Spring semester is shaping up to be significantly easier. I managed to build my schedule so that I don’t have class Monday or Friday (4 day weekends!). I can’t wait to enjoy every minute of my last semester as an undergrad, and hopefully most of my time isn’t spent in the labs like Fall semester.
Happy holidays and Fight On!
