Junior Year in Review

Areeta Wong
Jul 27, 2017 · 9 min read

I’m still in awe in the friends I’ve made, the sleep I’ve lost, and most importantly, the lessons I’ve learned.

1st Semester

Physics. Oh my god. PHYSICS. Never have I had so much trouble with a class. This was, without a doubt, the class that took the most time out of my schedule. No matter how often I asked for help and stayed after class, it just wasn’t happening. The concepts never fully clicked and I never felt 100% prepared for the class. However, it was bearable as I had an extremely dedicated and funny teacher. The class itself was one of the best (and most stressful) classes I’ve ever taken.

Lesson #1 — Sometimes, there are just things that we can’t completely understand or control, whether it be physics concepts or life. It’s okay to register it as failure, but what makes me not a failure is trying harder, and better.

Easily, junior year was the year that I cried the most out of any other year in my life. Everything felt so overwhelming, and circumstances were constantly changing. My schedule was a game of catching up and hoping for the best. Between school and home, there were two prominent figures that truly helped me get through this time — my sister and my best friend.

For a while, my parents took a trip to Europe. That meant pizza, ice cream, pasta, McDonald’s, and much more. My sister and I took over our parents’ bed and spent our nights catching up on each others lives and binge-watching seasons of Totally Spies. During the school week, she would wait patiently after school and listen to me rant about how I didn’t understand physics and even bought me a book to study off of. I don’t know how I would’ve lived through that time without her.

Meanwhile, during school, I had a free 7th period and so did the bestie. Who knew that Room A232 would be the first place that I would cry at school? We also shared secrets, rants, and most of all, food. It was a paradise in a nightmare.

Lesson #2 — Lean on people. There should always be someone that I’m able to rant, cry, and eat with. It makes bad times much more bearable.

At that point, jumping onto three hackathon-organizing teams at once seemed like a mistake. Not did I “handle the business side,” I also handled everything else. However, it was the best decision that I could’ve made. Organizing gave me a community that I never realized was there, a family that I could ask for advice from whenever, and a sense of purpose and passion to support tech education.

Lesson #3 — I absolutely love CodeDay . I love the memes we send, the opportunities we share, the talks we have, and everything in-between. Where else can I find people to drive to Safeway at 3am and buy 10 cases of water?


2nd Semester

As winter and spring came around, so did moving to San Francisco, badminton season, hackathons, AP Exams, SATs, and a cold.

Moving to San Francisco for a couple of months was quite the horror. Between waking up at 6am and coming back from school at 6pm (because of badminton), I wasn’t sleeping a lot. Although my family had settled most of their things in, there were still walls to paint, doors to fix, and pipes to install. Even with all the disorder of moving, my parents were trying to make things go as smoothly as possible. On some particularly great Friday nights, my sister and mom would come home with a RedBox movie and a bucket of KFC.

Lesson #4 — Don’t block out people. Even though there may be times of frustration, they will always be there for you as long as you put in the same effort to hold on to the relationship. There are family members, hackathon organizers, and mentors that I couldn’t have gotten to known without continuous and open communication.

Setup for HSHacks III | PC: Selynna Sun

Since most of the hackathons I was organizing were set to be in the spring, 1st semester was primarily focused on getting the funding and the venue set up. 2nd semester was piecing it all together and finalizing little details. Having worked a whole year to make HSHacks III happen, I was excited to see it finally come alive. Holding hundreds of CS-curious students in the same building for 24 hours was mind-boggling.

During all of this, I applied to a couple summer programs. I even made a list because I noticed that there were several other awesome opportunities that I didn’t know about and their deadlines long passed. Fast forward to March was when applicants were notified of their status of admission and boy, was it rough. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so many rejection letters at once. Never had I felt so insecure about my chosen field, never had I felt so lacking of my abilities, but most importantly, never had I felt so embarrassed to have let down the teachers who had written my letters of recommendation.

Admission Offices & Me

That night, my mom and dad came in and gave me a talk. It wasn’t some “they picked wrong” or some other bullshit regarding that I was in some way “above” the programs that refused admission to me and that I didn’t need them anyways. My parents gave me a 100% real talk. They said that it was okay because everyone gets rejected at least a couple times in their lives and that rejection is normal. They also suggested that maybe I wasn’t ready for these programs and that I would have several opportunities in the future. Although rejection is something to be disappointed about, it also enforces another way of thinking. I found that instead of moping around, I could improve my writing, my stats, and my presentation of myself.

Lesson #5 — Chill out and see the bigger picture. Getting rejected isn’t some catastrophic event. Specifically in the Bay Area, many students and their families are so focused and determined to achieve more that any failure is seen as a flaw in plans of “success”. However, what they don’t see is a chance to improve from mistakes and change for the better.

Between the two weeks of AP Exams, there was prom. On that exact day, there was also SATs. What a *wonderful* time ~ it was extremely fun and worth it though. At prom, students weren’t worrying about the week ahead of them; instead, they were all living in that exact moment — swaying their bodies to the music and letting the night sweep them away. It was a celebration of everything that we have accomplished and were going to accomplish. It was my first prom with some of the best people that I’ve met at my high school.

Spot Me!

After prom, I caught a cold which was also right before my AP Language Exam. I distinctly remember my English teacher reminding the whole class to not eat beans or “go on an adventure for exotic foods”. Rather than confining myself to stomachaches, I caught a cold and confined myself to boxes of tissues and migraines!

After the mess of testing, graduation came along. This senior year was the only class that I felt truly connected to. They were friends who started on the tech journey with me, mentors that advised me on just about everything, and family that I was sad to part from.

Last Day of Junior Year!

I have no idea how I survived the mess of spring season, but I’m glad I did.

Lesson #6 — Treat yo self (and people). You go have that ice cream. You deserve it.


Summer

I honestly didn’t believe that junior year could end. Although it seemed to proceed very slowly, it went by like a storm — horrible when it was happening and relieving after it ended. During the school year, I lost my connections with friends, family, and myself. I was so focused on working all the time that I didn’t want to do anything else until all of it was finished. However, with several deadlines and mountains of work building, there was never a “done”. Although junior year was a very emotionally draining experience, it did make me realize and learn a lot of things along the way which I am grateful for. This journey made me capable of becoming a better “me”. Life is usually determined by how people react to certain things that makes or breaks their situation so do remember to enjoy the ride there and make the most of it. With that in mind, I made it a point to have an awesome summer before senior year.

#BuiltByGirls @ Twitter || Spot My CodeDay family!

This summer has been the most happy I’ve felt since fetus stages. Enjoying my time with my beloved graduated seniors, I traveled all over the Bay Area to try new foods, watch shows, and attend tech events. I went strawberry picking with my uncle from Washington, finished three seasons of Lie to Me with my sister, and slept for 12 hours straight. Also, my soon-to-leave-the-nest sister got us tickets for the next Ali Wong show in San Francisco. Hell ya! Moreover, I drank more delicious boba than I could over imagine. While I have taken up jobs, I made sure to balance out my activities and keep those as a second priority.

Lesson #7 — Make time for the people.

Erin and me at Symantec!

The highlight of my summer was being able to contribute back to the Girls Who Code community by becoming a speaker with a close friend, Erin. While Girls Who Code has fantastic and inspiring speakers, most tend to be well into their professional and working stages of life. With Erin and me, our fresh outlook and experiences right after the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program served as an instantaneous benefit to these girls. We included advice on reaching and building CS communities, applying to college with a CS interest, internships, tech companies, and much more.

Realization #7 — Share your experiences. Pause in the moment and note it down for others to understand.


Currently, there are only three weeks of summer until senior year and I’m terrified. I’m terrified of all the teachers that I have to ask for letters of recommendation again, writing several applications, micro-managing all of my activities, and most of all, not sleeping.

Another storm is coming and I don’t know if I will be able to come out alive. Even though I survived junior year, I’m not exactly sure if I will be able to handle the chaos of college applications. Senior year will be the testament of all of the lessons that I have learned and I hope that I’ll be able to come out better and stronger with more knowledge to hold and behold onto others.

And with all of that in mind, I’ll always try to have fun with it along the way. What’s life without some fun?


Thanks for reading! Now, have some boba and enjoy some World of Dance from my one of my favorite dance crews, Kinjaz.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Min, Lizzie Siegle, Selynna Sun, and Vanessa Lam who made this article possible!

Areeta Wong

Written by

cs @ucirvine ’22 + @girlswhocode @TwitterSF ’16 + founder @superpositionfc

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