1B (January - April 2017)
The first job hunt.
The lustre of new environments and “adjusting” are largely worn off by the time the second semester rolls around. The “campus bubble” effect that hung over the majority of 1A was fully broken by the winter break back home and never returned to the same intensity. Small weekend trips out of the city or even just outside the campus for an evening became more common, much to the improvement of my overall outlook on student life.
Another notable change from 1A is that 1B marked my first co-op job hunt. Barely 18 and having next to no real experience in my professional field, this was a daunting task. With the help of my older brother, I created a side project during this semester that became foundational in developing employable skills (in comparison to the theory taught in the classroom). Part of this project involved making my own personal website, where you are currently reading this! I have much nostalgia for the days spent in my dorm room with a cheap usb powered dual monitor, hacking Javascript together while listening to Casey Neistat vlog music on SoundCloud. Working with my brother on this side project was incredibly exciting and would become a new bonding point for the two of us.
Despite my new abilities, finding employment as a software developer as an 18 year old with one semester of university completed is still very challenging. Out of the ~100 applications I sent in the main round of the co-op job cycle, I got 1 interview back, at a place called Bonfire Interactive. It seemed like a fantastic place not only to learn, but to also be a contributor to a rapidly growing startup. Despite my best preparation and effort, I did not get the job. At Waterloo, when one fails to secure a job in the main round, they are moved to the dreaded “continuous” round where the job postings quickly trickle from great to less than desirable. I remember eating dinner with my friends in the cafeteria on the day that the main round ended, each of us quietly somber until we realised that we were all heading to continuous together and how nice that solidarity felt.
In opposition to that, I somehow stumbled my way into the “advanced” stream of my program early in September and at this point, I was seeing classmates (majority of whom were high school prodigies and some already had a few internships under their belt) secure amazing job offers and even joke about the ones they had to turn down, to great demoralisation. I started getting more interviews in the continuous round but still struggled to convert any to offers.
As I got deeper into the trenches of continuous and things were looking increasingly grim, I lamented to my brother how getting that Bonfire job would have been so nice and he gave me the brilliant idea to reach out to my interviewer at Bonfire to see if they were potentially still looking for a summer intern. I figured I had nothing to lose and with nothing else to go off besides the name of the interviewer, I wrote out an email and then broadly sent it to every variation of firstname.lastname@company.com, firstletterlastname@company.com, etc that I could think of. Sure enough, after a few days, the person responded and they were so stunned at the boldness of my email that we set up a coffee chat in the coming week. One nervous coffee chat at Smile Tiger Coffee Roasters later, I had a summer internship at Bonfire. (please do not take any of the above story as professional advice, results may vary)
Until this part of the story, there has been a sizable part of my life that has been omitted, that being running (cross country and track and field). As a keen but average high school runner, I was excited at the prospect of being a collegiate athlete but didn’t expect to be on the university’s main ‘A’ squad in my first year. This ended up being true and in the fall (cross country season), I was a part of the varsity team, went to practices, and competed at all races save for the provincial championship. My adjustment to my new team, coaches, and practice structure is deeply connected with my adjustment to university as a whole. Many of my first friends in university and memorable experiences came from the fall with the team.
In the winter (track season), much of this changed and we moved under the management of the track coach instead of our cross country coach. Unlike our cross country coach who had at this point come to know most of us pretty well, the track coach was quite cold and off a single data point, not only cut many of us from the team but also restricted us from continuing to attend practice. I understand the concept of team cuts but I believe this myopically harsh approach is not how to build a team with consistent long term success. Especially at Waterloo when the pool of enthusiastic committed athletes is already small to begin with, socially isolating 18 year olds who may just need a few more months of training to make an impact is how you shut the door on realising the greater potential many carry. Unsurprisingly, many of the (talented) people cut at this time never bothered to come back in the following year and I don’t blame them. This whole experience still brings a sour taste to this day and I wish I could say that this was the end of it but we’ll continue this story in 2B.
I wasn’t sure if I should include this part here but on the off chance that somebody reading this finds themself in a similar position, I feel like it is important to mention. In our small cohorted “advanced” class of ~50 people, one of our classmates took their life just as exam season was about to start. I wasn’t particularly close to this person but within our small class, it left a heavy impact. I obviously can’t comment on the reasons why this person did what they did but for many of us, it was a harrowing reminder that there is more to life than the stresses of co-op/school/etc. With every passing year, the intensity of how stressful things seemed in first year diminishes and forfeiting all that would have come after is an incredible tragedy. If you are struggling wherever you are right now, please reach out, try to envision your life in 1, 5, 10 years from now and think about all the possibilities there are. It can’t be worth giving up.
As 1B and first year as a whole came to a close, and Facebook memories from one year prior started popping up, reminding how much had happened in just one year, I wish I could say that I was bittersweet about the year ending. Though I can look back now and appreciate what the year meant for me, it was far off from something like the ending to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and much closer to the ending of Shawshank Redemption. It wasn’t all too terrible though, the year finished with finding some friends to share a house with for second year. I have a happy memory of the five of us tossing around a frisbee by the green space beside our residence building, excitedly talking about what sorts of hijinks our house would get into for the following year. As the weather rapidly improved in mid April and trees and flowers sprang back into life, it signalled a positive sense of forward anticipation. Though the year had been a challenge, I had made it. That is worth celebrating.
Scattered memories:
- Drives with Dave to track meets
- Nights in STC basement with study group
- Figuring out house stuff
- Chilling in dorm watching Suicide Squad and doing PD courses (i.e. how to fail PD1)
- Easter back home and gradually moving out of residence
- Charles Richard-Hamelin concert
- The saga of the guy on our res floor who kept peeing in bottles and leaving them out
- My morning smoothie + burrito routine
- Winter break, being in one of my friend’s house without him somehow
Classes took:
- Math146 w/ Ross Willard
- Math148 w/ Kevin Lamb
- A meme of a class, nice instructor but not a good fit for the advanced cohort and the emphasis on rigour
- CS146 w/ Brad Lushman
- Music 110 w/ Mark Vuorinen, Laura Gray, and Maisie Sum
- ENGL108D w/ Aimee Morrison
- Fun class, felt like high school
Songs:
- Another Day of Sun - La La Land Soundtrack
- Listened to La La Land Soundtrack nearly everyday during this semester reading week
- Mr President - Kim DotCom
- One random catchy jingle I used to listen to a lot while working on side projects
- Denmark (Instrumental) - VVE
- Antarctica - Andrew Applepie ft. Redhead Gang
- The Girl I Haven’t Met Yet - kudusaibeats