How far can one year take you?
Human being overestimate what they can do in the short-term and underestimate what can be achieved in the long-term.
TLDR; Much farther than you could have possibly imagined a year back.
Sometime around March 2014, I had got really fed up of the way I had been going about things and decided to give myself an year to get my life back on track.
(Below passages are written in third person)
Background on the me back then: a 6 pointer struggling with Chemical Engineering at NIT Surat in India who was interested in way too many things to excel at anything (with ChemE certainly not being one). The regular (below) introvert engineering undergraduate in an NIT, just more moody. So much so that he had barely scraped through the third semester with a 4.7 SGPA and below-par attendance (not proud of that). However, he hadn’t got a single backlog (kind of proud of that).
Now, he was good at writing, was a startup-enthusiast and had started to develop somewhat of an interest in Computer Science but had never got serious enough about it. But he had always been motivated enough to learn things on his own (and with some help) if it interested him. He had working as a part-time content editor for the then-early-stage startup News in Shorts. He left the job to concentrate on improving as a technologist. Having already discovered MOOC platforms, he decided to complete an introductory CSE course for once. The course was Harvard’s amazing CS50x course on edX. After a summer spent at home struggling with the course material and experimenting with some other topics, he stumbled upon this field called Machine Learning. A Matrix fan and mathematics enthusiast, he found it to be perfect! This is the photograph of the first page of the ML journal I had made for myself on one of those fine summer days (26 June, 2014).
The time to head back to college and the dreadful ChemE classes approached but after a long time, he had a sense of purpose. Hostel and friends had been somewhat of a relief during the past two years. This year, he had got separated from most of his friends because of low GPA. The hostel he was to stay in housed mostly strangers and acquaintances. Not the best scenario for an introvert. That however proved to be a blessing in disguise. It provided him with the opportunity to study in peace and learn to interact better with people. Moreover, he dived in to the world of online learning. The fact that his GPA was already beyond-repair didn’t leave much choice.
Sometime around August, 2014 the idea to start a startup took birth. He, along with two other batch mates, started to explore the problem of skill-development among college graduates and how to bridge the gap between college and real-world scenarios. The startup was named Skifer. His personal learning continued too as he got interested in design as well. 2014 came to an end.
He was interested in a research internship but the profile certainly wasn’t helping. He continued without bothering much about it for the next month on, deciding to concentrate on the startup instead. It was during the Holi vacations that he started getting worried about the upcoming summer vacations. Everyone around seemed to be trying (and getting) some kind of internship or other. Something had to be done.
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) had always been on his mind but he had never thought that he could get in. However, a senior from civil engineering had got into the program back in 2014. He decided to give it a shot. After going through numerous organizations and projects, he zeroed in on two of them. Since the application deadline was too close for comfort, all the eggs were put in one basket and a project was chosen (R Project for Statistical Computing). The mentors were contacted and a proposal was submitted. Back to Skifer. After a few months of ideation, market surveys, and a website, the startup plan didn’t work out. The three had given a major chunk of our time to it during the past few months but not enough. It was a great learning experience though.
Fast-forward to April end and the GSoC results had arrived. He had got selected. To sum it up, for once he hadn’t fucked it up.
Now back to the present (and first person).
I am not exaggerating when I say that there was a point in 2014 when I was doubtful if even a mass recruiter would hire me, and if I would survive 4 years of college. That was one of the lowest points I have ever been at. To be fair, my GPA still lies below the cut-off of most companies that visit my campus.
But after a failed startup attempt, a GSoC project and some close brushes with the education system in general, it’s fair to say I am more confident in my abilities and a tad bit more experienced.
Is it all roses now? Not even close.
I am not working on a startup or anything right now, and in no mood to go for a job. My plans to pursue research are seriously hindered by my below-par academic profile. I am involved in a project or two though. Plus I am still only building the foundation for my interests (ML, Data Science, HCI) which I seek to apply to my domain of interest, education and learning.
That being said, the year helped me improve myself as a person and student in more ways than one.
