COOP3 (January - April 2019)
Feeling like a "grownup".
I omitted a lot of the co-op search from the previous section since it didn’t really thematically fit. The search process was exciting and I interviewed with a few companies in really cool locations including Norway, Kenya, and NYC. Although I ended up in Toronto for this semester, I had formed this goal of getting a “good” co-op to secure my post university job prospects and then prioritizing personal experiences for the remaining co-ops.
For this semester, I was working at a medium sized startup company called League in downtown Toronto. Although I felt like I got a good idea of the company culture from the interview process, the previous co-op taught me that all bets are off until day one, so there were definitely some nerves walking into the office for the first time. All worries were quickly quelled and the four co-ops were taken on a tour of the sleek and modern looking open office. I was paired with a fantastic mentor and by the end of day three, I had already shipped my first bit of code into production.
Things only progressed from there, in large thanks to my awesome mentor and the great teams we worked with. It felt like the continuation from the Bonfire co-op that I was hoping to have in COOP2. Not only were my technical skills rapidly improving, but I was taking more ownership over my work, feeling less like a co-op and closer to just another engineer on the team. Like any successful startup, League moved very quickly and within my four months there, I worked with four different teams to ship a variety of products. With a suggestion from my mentor, I also started sitting in on the design department’s weekly brainstorming and prototyping meeting. I got to test many different UI’s and give my feedback and this was a really great opportunity to expand my borders of technical creative thinking.
I also had a lot of fun along the way. The majority of engineers ate lunch together and banter frequented between movies, cool places around the city, and the Bachelor. There was after work yoga, weekly townhall gatherings with beer, waffle breakfasts, but the perk I made the most of was the sparkling water on tap. The co-op term concluded in receiving an award at the company’s monthly all hands meeting and also having 1 on 1 lunch with the CEO. I wrote an article for their blog talking about my positive co-op term and it was used later in their job postings to attract future co-ops.
Outside of work, running remained a sizable part of my life. The university indoor track season runs from December to March so although things went really well in the fall, the part that actually mattered was now. My brother also runs competitively so I joined his group in Toronto for the social component but continued to get my workouts emailed to me from my coach back in Waterloo. I got quite sick over the holiday season and I was unable to run for a week so unsurprisingly, the first race of the year went disastrously. I was determined not to let the fantastic fall go to waste, especially after overcoming my setbacks in first and second year. I was laser focused in workouts and my brother generously helped pace them to make sure I was getting the most out of them that I could. My brother’s training group became invested in my collegiate season and I felt a lot of support from them as well.
I missed being away from my teammates in Waterloo but we raced nearly every week so I’d see them on weekends and the group chat would suffice during the week. I’d also go back to Waterloo from time to time for team events. My fitness quickly improved with every race and eventually managed to grab provincial standard by the skin of my teeth (0.06 seconds) and qualify myself to run at provincial championships. The more exciting development was our 4x800m relay team that quietly improved and eventually shimmied into a national championship qualification. Though not everybody from our fall training group went, this five day trip to Winnipeg for the national championship felt like a culmination of our collective journey since September. Individually, it wasn’t a superb showing for me but getting a taste of that higher level within collegiate athletics was so tantalising. Enough for me to look back to where I was a year before and be very proud of the accomplishment but still very hungry for more. A good place to end a season I think.
I was no stranger to downtown Toronto before this semester but living there is another thing. I biked as my main method of transportation and would recommend it to anybody living in a city with the risk appetite associated with it. Not only is it a great way to learn the layout of the city by sight instead of looking at Google Maps on a phone, it makes you feel like a part of the liveliness. I really enjoyed city living, the bright lights, the conveniences of everything a short walk away, the constant flow of people everywhere, it’s pretty banal but life really did feel more cinematic. This was especially true in the first month of the term when I was living solo in my brother’s old apartment consisting of a mattress on the floor, a $5 Ikea coffee table, a single chair, my violin, a yoga mat, and no internet.
Knowing that there was an almost certainty that I would live in a metropolitan city post-graduation, it was nice to have validation that the associated lifestyle suited me well. Things like walking around the financial district at lunch to pick up a mobile order felt a bit like pretending to be an adult but I knew one day that it would just be part of my regular life. As I prepared to get ready to return to small town Waterloo for another school semester, in a similar way that I described “campus bubble” popping in 1A, something felt like it had changed. The academic spell was weakened and exams suddenly had just a little less weight to them. I had gotten a glimpse into life after university and that’s something that’s hard to unsee - for better or for worse.
Scattered memories:
- City biking, especially at night down University Ave
- Masters track group
- Post practice Burrito Bandidos
- Tempos along DVP trail, underneath Bloor St Viaduct
- Sinfonia Toronto concert and Avengers Endgame double header
- Mission to get a PS4
- Cooking enormous meals with brother while watching a movie
- Runners of the Nish book signing event
- St. Paddy’s in Waterloo
- Art showcase week, UofT, OCAD GradEX, Ryerson MX
- Culture Card Awards at League
- Getting ready to go to practice with brother listening to the Mortal Kombat theme
Songs:
- 10AM/Save the World - Metro Boomin ft. Gucci Mane
- Go to song walking to practice
- Alone - Petit Biscuit
- Breezeblocks - alt-J
- A New Error - Moderat
- Insane hype song
- Everlong - Foo Fighters
- Boom Clap - Charli XCX
- Create - OVERWERK
- MIDDLE CHILD - J. Cole
- Dream Bandit - Saint Felix
- Odessa - Caribou
- Nobody - Mitski