My first few days after turning 24 was the beginning of the end of my undergrad career. After a delicious cheesecake, ice cream cake, a garden, a hockey stick, a music video and lots of friends, my 24 hours of turning 24 was over and the ridiculous week took over. It’s ironic how all my profs happen to have scheduled deadlines for major projects all in the same week. The big event for us 4th year Systems Design students was the design symposium – the culmination of 8 months of work showcased for all to see. I was extremely impressed by the calibur of the work done by my peers and the range projects that were represented. Everything was included: healthcare, energy, robotics, retail, software… which really reminded me of what Systems Design is. Or rather, what Systems Design isn’t. Our program really is the study of many things and learning how to integrate them in the bigger picture, as opposed to a narrower specialization. So it isn’t a surprise to me that my classmates are all headed to different fields after graduation. Even I’m taking a major turn in my post-grad plans! However, I think our Systems thinking that’s been so ingrained in us these past 5 years will undoubtedbly be readily used since it applies to nearly everything.
And so 5 years of school coming to an end. This past Saturday, the entire graduating Engineering class at Waterloo celebrated once again (after IRS) the great times that we’ve had together. I was so pleased to see most of my classmates there all dressed up and letting loose after this past crazy week, especially since most of us are taking different courses for our electives and don’t see each other as often as we used to in the first 3 years. Seeing as convocation will be much time spent with family and several people won’t be back from their grad trips, grad ball really was the last main event that we could all party together. The two biggest reasons for being in the program that I’ve been in is co-op and community. Co-op experience has been monumental in being able to explore different fields of engineering and learning real work and life skills, discovering what I like and dislike, what works and doesn’t work… But community within my class is irreplaceable. Fantastic bunch of people I’ve grown to live with, work with, travel with, and all the more… I couldn’t have predicted it before coming to UW, infact many other programs don’t have what we’ve been fortunate to experience together. Even though, I’m graduating with few hard skills and lots uncertainty in the coming years, the soft and transferable skills and the people connections we’ve made were much worth it!
One week left! I guess I should go to my classes… they are my last ones, FOREVER!
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