Capstone Reflections

Do you remember trying to run downhill for the first few times? At first it feels amazing, gravity helps you run faster than you ever have been able to run before. Then… there is a moment. The moment when your legs can’t keep up with the rest of your body. Your run starts to tips into falling, your urge you legs to go faster, yet gravity seems to pull harder with every second.

That’s me right now. Instead of gravity, it has been work, life (covid exposure), cleaning my home, a new health problem, job searching and oh yeah, my last two classes of my degree. I have been keeping up so far but this week everything came at me fast. I am trying to get it all done but I feel like my feet (really my typing fingers) can’t keep up.

I normally try to maintain a healthy social life but I have a strong feeling that I am going to have to put that one pause until the ground levels out.

I am really enjoying my group work with my team and learning about audio processing, just feeling the gravity of the term. I am using a ton of the stuff that I learned in my software engineering classes and this project feels more “real” than anything I have worked on before.

This week has been hectic…

The start of classes, the barrage of emails from students with positive COVID cases, house projects, and capstone!

At least I know what my project is and I am pretty sure that I understand what it is suppose to do by the end of the term. While not the biggest win, it’s still a win and those are few and far between right now.

My path through CS has somehow totally missed C++. I have dabbled in C for the operating systems class but I haven’t really dived into the modern C++ syntax ever. So guess what this project needs? Yup, you guessed it, a specialized framework that is all written in a super popular and common language that I have no idea how to use.

This just means I get to spend a little extra time doing some tutorials and getting extra exposure to cool concepts. I just wish I had a little more time.

Finally, as I look back on this week, my group is awesome. I am going to be the weakest link, which is great motivation to get on things early. We seem to mesh well as a team, and so far my more experienced counterparts have been really helpful and kind.

My plane landed late last night in the PDX airport. I had been visiting Mexico after the holidays with my wife and our close friends. We loaded up into our minivan and drove down I-5. We made it home around 3am.

This morning I turn on my computer and start to play catch up. We hadn’t planned on missing the first couple of days of the term but with the snow and staffing shortages, we ended up being delayed and delayed. I complete the syllabus quiz, dive into the modules for this class and realize… I have already messed up. I missed the first deadline and wasn’t able to select a project. Not only am I losing an easy 10 points but now I am along for the ride on a random project with a random group.

I can already feel a touch of anxiety set in.

Well, nothing I can do now but make the best of my random group and get stoked for the project ahead of me. My new goal for this class is: don’t miss another deadline. Shouldn’t be that hard right?

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