22!

My new years resolutions from last year were:

Work on more projects ✔
Develop a better idea of who I want to become
Make many more industry connections ✔
Have good job prospects/land a job offer ✔
Don't get into an accident/injure myself ✔
Find someone I really like (placeholder resolution) ✔

The biggest (and only?) project that I am working on right now is my senior project. I've got a great team and a highly applicable project so I feel like I lucked out there.

I am still struggling to find who I want to become. Things were thrown off-course when I met my girlfriend, who I now have a long distance (over 5,000 miles) relationship with.

I made many industry connections in Japan through my internship there.

Although I won't be starting work immediately after graduation, I got a 6 month internship with a top company. With loads of schoolwork and other commitments, I feel like I did not have enough time to do a more thorough job search and application process in late 2015, so I am looking forward to going into my job hunt with more experience and a better idea of which companies I want to pursue and how.

I luckily did not get into any major accident, but I had about two very painful weeks in February where I had strep throat-like symptoms followed by immensely painful version of canker sores. I lost over 10 pounds in under two weeks because I could barely eat. I had two swab tests and one blood test taken but results came back negative for any sign of infection. I am seriously doubting the efficacy of my school's health center.

Like the year before, my most significant event was going abroad, this time to Tokyo, Japan for an internship. There, I made what I think will be long-lasting friendships and also met my girlfriend.

I originally didn't want to put in finding a girlfriend as a new years resolution again because it sounds insincere and because love should be spontaneous, not an achievement you plan for in advance. But looking back at how much time I've spent with this person and how she's helped me mature, I thought that finding a girlfriend is something too significant to not mention.

As I prepare for graduation and eventual employment, here are new years resolutions for 22 year old me:

Land a good job offer or get accepted into a good grad school
Start investing and saving (bringing this one back from 2 years ago)
Create 10 year financial goals and plans to meet them
Find a non-engineering and non-CS related hobby and get good at it
Do something really cool during the gap time from when my internship ends to employment/school

And that's all. Even though I previously mentioned that 20 would be hard to beat, I think I had an equally if not more awesome 21, and I hope the trend continues for 22.

Horrible Feeling

It's a horrible feeling when you are suffering and make the effort to go to the person who is supposed to be able to help you, but that person can't.

Over the last three and a half weeks, I've experienced strep-throat and severe herpangina-like symptoms (like canker sores but worse).  I've visited the health office four times already, have taken two swab tests and one blood test, but results have come back with no sign of viral or bacterial infection.  All they could do was prescribe me antibiotics, antivirals, and pain relievers.  The throat and mouth symptoms were severe enough that I could not eat for two weeks, because when I did, the pain was so much that starving was a better alternative.  Even my prescription hydrocodone did little to ease the pain.  I lost over 10 pounds during the period, and I am now hovering at around 110 pounds.

After two weeks of enduring 24/7 pain (my strep symptoms had subsided at this point, but my mouth still had sores), I decided to take matters into my own hands and research into treating my symptoms.  I bought a few types of over the counter canker sore treatments and one medication seemed like it worked.  However, I quickly ran out of the medication ($10 per 0.5 oz, ouch) and when I went back today to see if the local CVS had it, they had run out of stock.  So I went to the CVS downtown, and they were also sold out.  So I bought some on Amazon.  The medication comes in on Saturday.  It is Thursday morning right now.

So here I am blogging at 1AM because I can't go to sleep because my mouth hurts.  No one can help me.