A Reflection

In life there are those choices that make a dent in your life, sometimes called cornerstones in life. It becomes what defines you, you become it. We are also a collection of all the choices that we made up until this moment in life. And you only get one shot at life, therefore you cannot ask someone to make a decision for you or blame others for a bad one.

When I chose to pursue Informatics over Computer Science in freshmen year, none of my friends even knew about that major. I didn’t care how famous a major was, I really enjoyed what I learned in the class and I chose it, definitely another cornerstone in my life.

One story that I will share with you that I didn’t share with many of my friends is that in 2015 right after my military I was actually trying to transfer to a different school. Same major, but in a school on the east coast. This decision was heavily influenced by my dad, which I guess wasn’t too happy with where I was. I wasn’t too inline with this opinion, but I was convinced that it was worth a try. The transfer required me to take physics and more math classes which was the worst quarter of my entire UW life. At the end I got rejected, I was really upset because I let my dad down, and wasted a complete quarter on unnecessary courses. But this was a choice that I made and I couldn’t blame my dad for it. So from there onward, I decided to go all in on INFO, another reason why I am still a senior with only 9 VLPA credits, LOL.

I went through the toughest class in Informatics, INFO 344 with CK Wang, which I will be TAing in the Winter, and got an internship. After that, I got to meet Prof. Jevin West and join the Viziometrics Project. I learned about research and gained interest in Computer Vision. I presented at the Undergraduate Symposium for two projects at the same time, and those two projects grew to become a Capstone project of itself, which one even got the ‘Best in Class’ award.

Mist of going through that crazy pile of research, I was a webmaster for the ASUW and also became a TA for Prof. West’s ‘Calling Bullshit’ class, which I am also TAing this quarter. I also became the ‘Director of Academics’ for IUGA and founded a new group within the iSchool called ‘SUDO’. I also met Younpyo Hong and formed a coding study group, which he still runs. Then I managed to get an internship that Summer. I met my mentor Doochan and Mike, who really made my experience their much more than what it could have been, also maybe because Doochan and I bonded as Koreans, lol. The joy of finally having this opportunity was amazing and learned so much.

It was definitely a hack of a ride. Now that I am done with most of my heavy coursework, I think the dust has settled a bit down. I am still very active on IUGA and SUDO, but I have some more time to think about things now.

Today I made a choice that is a bit more important than my usual choices of picking what to eat for dinner. It was a choice that took me weeks to think about and debate with my family and friends. We are merely just making the best choice at the moment of decision. I am excited to share that I will be joining HBC Digital as a full time Software Engineer!

I would like to thank everyone who helped me get to where I am today. When I graduated high school in 2012, I would have never thought I would achieve so much in college. I was very lucky to meet the people I met on the way and learn from them. I would like to thank Dean for helping me navigate and close on the offer. I thank my family for financially and morally supporting me. And of course to all my peers who supported me, especially Sally.