Since I’ll be using this blog to document my final quarter at OSU, it seems only fitting to start with how I got here. My name’s Taylor, I live in Seattle, and I’m 27 years old.<\/p>\n
(In the paraphrased words of Charlotte Lucas, from the cinematic masterpiece Pride and Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright, “I’ve no money and [hopefully some] prospects. I’m [not actually] a burden on my parents, [but I am] frightened.”)<\/p>\n
My first degree was a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Washington. Initially, I had gone into that degree with the intention of going to medical school and becoming a doctor; that plan lasted until almost the end of undergrad, when I started seriously looking at what it would take to get into med school and realized it wasn’t remotely worth it. (Incidentally, none of my pre-med friends went to med school either. Take from that what you will.)<\/p>\n
Instead of hopping straight into more school, I decided a break was in order, so I got an administrative job at a hospital and enjoyed not having homework for the first time in 16 years. And that was great! Until about 2021… It had been a year of lockdown and COVID restrictions, I was starting to get tired of my job, and I had just turned 25: a perfect storm for a quarter-life crisis. I was just feeling stuck, and I knew it was time to move forward.<\/p>\n
I spent some time looking at grad school options that were related to biology, but by that point the field had lost some of its appeal. So I decided, forget about the sunk cost fallacy, what’s a major I wish I would have chosen if I could go back and do undergrad again? Computer science came to mind pretty immediately. I loved the idea of breaking down how things worked and the sort of puzzle aspect of writing new programs. I never considered it at UW (it’s just about the most competitive major they have), but this was a clean start, so why not give it a go?<\/p>\n
And then came OSU! (Not really. I do recognize that many things that sound fun in theory are in fact painstakingly boring, so I took an intro class at a community college as a sort of trial run. But then after that came OSU!)<\/p>\n
When I started this program, the idea of getting another degree and finding a new job felt like this distant plan that would happen at some point in the nebulous future. But now two and a half years later, I’m in my last quarter, and suddenly that reality is frighteningly close. I have no regrets about making the switch to CS, and I really am excited to join this field and start my career; that said, the thought of entering the job market and applying what I’ve learned is still a little terrifying.<\/p>\n
But right now, I intend to enjoy this last quarter and really have some fun working on this project. I’m looking forward to being on this ride with you all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since I’ll be using this blog to document my final quarter at OSU, it seems only fitting to start with how I got here. My name’s Taylor, I live in Seattle, and I’m 27 years old. (In the paraphrased words of Charlotte Lucas, from the cinematic masterpiece Pride and Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright, “I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/homant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}