It's been a long while but I am back. Since my last post, life has been a crazy whirlwind. To catch you up on life, I took fall quarter off to work at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to do research, design a quantum computer chip, and apply to grad schools. It was an amazing experience and made me realize how much I enjoy what I do. LBNL has been a big life changer for me. I have had the privilege to work there for six months so far and am happy to say I will be returning to the lab this summer to continue my research with CCSE.
I moved back from the bay about eleven weeks ago to come back to UCLA for winter quarter. The transition from a life of research to school was a weird shift and differently required some getting used to. In research there is never one correct answer and there are no perfectly laid out steps like there are in school. Research consists of much failure and trying with the success rate extremely low to that of failing. But even so, when progress is made or you have a small breakthrough, it rekindles the excitement tenfold. After the first few weeks back at UCLA I got back into the groove of things. Just as that happened, I began hearing back from grad schools. No one told me how stressful and time consuming and all encompassing this would be. I thought the hard part was applying but let me tell you just how wrong I was. These are such first world issues and I feel so blessed to even have the issue of trying to decide where to do my PhD. But how the heck am I supposed to decide where I want to live and the exact thing I want to study for the next gob of years?? I am so stressed and my brain is over stuffed with so much information. I am scared I will make the wrong choice or end up regretting the path I take. I am just thankful that after tomorrow I will be done with finals and will be able to relax a little bit and figure out what my next steps are re grad school and of course get better at skiing.
One thing that I miss most about the bay is the access to the outdoors. Every weekend I was on a different adventure and seeing new things. I was going climbing multiple times a week and overall just felt a sense of peace. The bay holds so many magnificent memories and moments of pure bliss. If I could have that every day I would.
Well that's enough for now. I hope to post some blogs regarding outdoor adventures in the bay in the next coming weeks. Also stay tuned for an epic announcement, (hint- it has to do with something I am doing this summer) but if you know me you probably already know what it is about.
As always, happy hiking.