Halfway There

During my freshman year of high school I was mandatorily made to join the marching band if I wanted to be part of concert band. It was a bit of a misnomer because we didn't do any marching. We spent the time at football games watching the clock, learning the cheerleaders’ cheers, and trying to keep warm enough to be able to play. Then for about ten minutes in the middle of the whole ordeal, we’d run onto the field, stand there, and play the halftime show before running off. One of the songs in our halftime show was “Livin’ On A Prayer” by Bon Jovi. The chorus of that song goes as follows: “Whoa, we’re halfway there/Livin’ on a prayer/Take my hand and we’ll make it – I swear/Livin’ on a prayer.” Seems fitting to describe the first half of my college career.

What have I learned so far? No matter how early you start p-chem or fluids homework, you will always be finishing both problem sets at 2 in the morning on Friday. There’s no such thing as “a quick question.” Always carry an extra pair of socks. Earplugs aren't a bad idea either. I also solved the Navier Stokes equations, discovered the wonders of quantum tunneling, celebrated Valentine’s Day with MATLAB, used both the very sophisticated coffee cup calorimeter and a bomb calorimeter, and much, much more.

This past semester was my busiest yet (though according to my preliminary data analysis I actually got more sleep this semester than last) but it was also a whole lot of fun. There were impromptu field trips, baking mishaps, the end of hockey season, the start of the MLS season, and penguins.

I currently have a few weeks off and I’m hoping to do some writing here before I have to get back to work. There are some usual end-of-semester posts I’ll put together and then I’d like to highlight some of the things that made my spring semester so busy. [Problem sets. So many problem sets.]

This x 25 = problem sets for the Spring 2014 semester