Starting College

I've just finished my first two weeks of college, and I'm really enjoying it here. The transition was really easy since I did a 6-week summer program beforehand, so I already had friends coming into school. So far, classes are super chill and I've been attending as many club meetings as possible. I've also done many things that I never would have expected before (more on this later).

Anyway, let's start at the beginning.

Freshman Summer Start Program

Since this would be my first college experience, I was pretty nervous: there were so many new faces and I didn't have anyone I knew to hang out with. To make things worse, the building was really old (musty bathrooms, etc), so I had a bad feeling about how everything would turn out. I missed having my own private room and clean bathroom.

I really did not know what to do on that first night there, and I was kinda too scared to go out and say hi to people. So instead, I just played Sekiro on my M1 Macbook Pro. Probably not the best first impression when my roommate walked in for the first time. And not to glaze or anything, but he was a pretty intimidating guy: 6'2, built, and with a really deep voice (emphasis on the deep voice, I mean like holy shit, I was trying to match my voice so I didn't sound like a little kid). Of course in hindsight, he's a cool dude, and it's kinda funny how scared I was in that moment when I first met him. Overall, my roommate was considerate of my space and was very clean; we got along well I think.

New Friends, Classes, and Fun Activities

The first few days were just for socializing and meeting new people. I think I made most of my friends by randomly sitting with them in the dining hall, or just complaining about the showers while passing by in the bathroom. To this day, I still hang out with those same people I met.

By the time classes started, I had a system for brushing my teeth and showering (which seems simple enough until you realize that the showers had no benches to put your stuff on). I ended up adopting the "towel strat," where you would walk to the showers with only a towel on. It was awkward at first, but then again, what have I been training in the gym my whole life for!

The classes were pretty easy—Writing 2 was self-graded and my Greek Myth TA gave everyone A's on their paper—but I still spent a lot of time in the library. There's something kind of satisfying just grinding out homework while overlooking the ocean. I was studious for the first week or so, but then I started getting into Game of Thrones, and that took up most of my time instead.

Apart from class and the library, I'd usually spend my time playing ping pong in the lounge (I was known as the best player in the building) or going to the gym. I actually got noticeably stronger in recent months, and I've gotten some compliments about that from my friends.

Also, of course, I started surfing! My friend who was originally from Santa Cruz took us all out and taught us how to surf. I didn't stand that day, but I guess it led the path to many other fun surfing days. We went probably every week, especially since the beach was a 5-minute walk from our dorm and because we had unlimited access to boards and wetsuits.

Party School?

Once I found my place with my group of friends, we started going out every so often (they went out way more than me; I was trying to be a little more locked in). In Isla Vista, there are parties literally every day of the week. I remember going to one random frat house on a Thursday night (and keep in mind, this is the summer school) yet it was still packed with people.

Anyway, like I said in the introduction, I did something that I never thought I'd do (perhaps regrettably). Actually, I think it was a bad idea. 5 shots was a little too many. I'm not going to say it here but you (AKA future me) definitely know. Fuey and James were surprised as well.

Beach

We hit the beach a lot. Here are some cool photos.

One Week Back Home

Despite all the fun I had at FSSP, I actually looked forward to going back home. I missed my family and my friends, and I missed having good food. The first meal I ate when I got back was O2 Valley: BBQ pork over rice, popcorn chicken, and boba. The classic combo!

I spent as much time as I could with my parents, but they also had to go to work. My day-to-day life was basically the same as before FSSP.

Berkeley

I also had the chance to visit James and Cheney at Berkeley. Hayden and I took an Uber there (the train didn't work) and I slept over for two nights. We had a lot of fun trying new food, exploring the campus, and best of all, playing 7 hours of poker. I lost money, but oh well.

Shopping

When I got back on Monday, I met up with Josh, Max, and Mihlaan and went to Valley Fair mall. I bought a really nice black hoodie (which is my favorite one now), a pair of loose jeans, and some Uniqlo oversized shirts. My friends say that baggy is the way to go; my parents don't like it, I'm not sure what I think. We also got miso soup to end the trip. The next day, they all left for college.

UCSB - For real this time

Wow, I actually can't believe that I've started college. I've been thinking about it for almost all my life. It's totally different than what I'd imagined (and perhaps, where I'd imagined), but I'm actually really happy with my stage in life right now.

First, let me show you my room.

I lowkey might be taking up most of the room, but my roommates are super chill (thank god). I've spent a few hours gaming in the first week, but I've stopped for the most part.

Last Good Meal With Parents

The night they dropped me off, my parents treated me to a nice meal. I got lobster and clam chowder. We also took a walk by the pier at night and stumbled upon the place where I had ice cream for the first time ever. Perhaps it was meant to be.

Zero Week and Clubs

I met a lot of new people during zero week, and there were plenty of engineering events that I attended. Overall, this week was purely for making new friends and exploring what the university has to offer (a once-in-a-lifetime moment, just as Mr. Hahn predicted!). I should've talked to more girls, but whatever; maybe after I get a perm and complete my ABB transformation I'll do that.

There were plenty of clubs that I was interested in: ACM, IEEE, Gaucho Racing, Game Dev Club, and UCSB Rocket Club. I only ended up joining ACM and IEEE though, since time is rough. I also checked out other events like the boba social from the Asian Engineering Club.

Church is Really Good?

Church has surprisingly been the highlight of many of my days. I first got started at A2F during the summer and met some of the mentors there—all of them are amazing and really cool people. In particular, Joseph is a CS major from UCSB working remotely as a software engineer. We play basketball together and more recently, I've been going with Surya to his house for Courses 101: delicious food and exploring hard questions about Christianity. His mom also taught Physics at Gunn; what a small world! There's another mentor named Dylan. He's a CE major who also works in the area, and he's really good at surfing. He brought his boards (he has six) the day after I moved in and took me surfing at Campus Point, which I thought was really nice of him. Derek is a software engineer from Berkeley who is also really cool. Eric is a 4th year CCS Physics major who is good at basketball and is probably going to grad school for CS (he said his research lab is looking for undergrads...). Cyril went to my high school! He did CS and is working in Santa Barbara; he knows Fuey's sister and Ethan Kitch's older brother. And finally, we have the pastor, John. Man, this guy is insane. He graduated EECS from Berkeley and went into software engineering, decided he didn't like it, took the LSAT and scored 99th percentile, decided that wasn't right either, scored 99th percentile on MCAT, then realized his true calling was to be a pastor. Wow. This guy is my inspiration for life.

Funnily enough, church has actually been the best networking "club." But of course, I've gotten much more than that from it. I'm still trying to explore my own faith, and I find myself in the same shoes as many of the mentors who used to be just like me. As the year goes on, I hope to learn more about God and figure out who I'm supposed to be.

Today, Surya (a non-Christian, but has been going for 2 weeks) and I took Mason to church. I was surprised to say that he really enjoyed it and even encouraged Beto to come. He doesn't believe in the God aspect of church, but he really relates to lessons about morality and purpose that we discussed this morning. Actually, off-topic, I think at church I saw Rori, someone from my middle school who I haven't seen in years. I wonder who else from Palo Alto goes here.

A New Major?

Finally, let's talk about about something that is HUGE for my college career. Last week, I got an email saying that I got into the College of Creative Studies! Now, though the name sounds a little lame, this is a really great opportunity. If you didn't read my blog post ("Last Week of School") where I stressed out about applying for it, CCS is basically a "graduate" school for undergraduates. Basically, the idea is to accelerate lower div CS classes to push you straight into upper div as soon as possible. By Spring, I'll be taking upper div CS courses.

Not only is the program accelerated, but there are other perks. Best of all, perhaps, is that being in CCS greatly increases chances of getting research, because the professors know that we're the real deal. The class size is also really small, so you can make a close connection with your peers and with your professors (this year is only 5 people in CCS Computing, though generally there are about 15 per year). Some of my classmates are quite strange, but I think it'll be fine. My friend Ezra from Gunn is also one of the 5 in this program.

My offer into this major is actually contingent on my performance in the first class. Professor Richert Wang told me that if I'm not done with the CS 24 labs by the end of week 5, I could be in some trouble. It's been 4 days since he told me that; I finished all of it. Looking forward to finishing CS 32 this week!

For my CCS Lab, I'm working on an AI ping-pong scoreboard app that can automatically track points. My first approach is to detect when a player raises their hands to indicate that they've won the rally. Soon, I could look into actual automation, but I think the hand-raise approach works better in practice.

I've also started applying to research and internships, now that I have the CCS badge under my name. Wish me luck!

Future

Idk man. I've been writing this post for over an hour now. I hope there are good things to come. I want to make new friends, eventually talk to girls, and continue to grow as the best version of myself.