Life, School, and Updates

Hi friends! Happy Friday! No review today - I'm feeling a little worn out, in terms of reviewing. I'll pick back up with reviews on Sunday.

I meant to do this post earlier in the week, on Monday! It's hard to squeeze in somewhat spontaneous posts with my blog calendar/schedule being as packed as it is. But I wanted to share with you all what is going on in my life, outside of my reading. I don't do this often, so here goes!

As of last week, I've finished my third year of undergraduate studies! I have another year and then I'll graduate. For those of you who don't know, I'm studying environmental engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. I have two majors - environmental engineering and Spanish - and I recently added a minor - Earth & Planetary Science.

This past year as a junior was incredibly difficult. Junior year is typically known as the hardest year, both in high school and in university. For me, it was because I took on a lot more than I had in previous years. In both fall and spring semester, I did 19 credits in each - and keep in mind, most of my classes are engineering classes. I also continued working 13-15 hours per week at my job, and I continued to do research in an engineering microbiology lab in my department, which I had started doing in Summer 2015.

This academic year was also the first academic year without The Gilipollas Boy, whom I don't really mention much anymore. He's kind of a distant part of my past, which I appreciate. Sometimes I remember and dwell on those memories, but it's not as hard to think about him.

With all that I had going on, in academics, work, and beyond the classroom, these past two semesters have been my highest achieving semesters, in terms of grades. It's honestly kind of impressive, even to myself: I survived taking 19 credits of engineering classes, 15 hours/week of work, lab research and analysis, 3-4 reviews on my blog (plus posting every day)... and I've never done so well in terms of grades. 

Of course, I got about an average of 4 hours of sleep every night (sometimes less, but usually not more), so something had to give.

I am so proud of myself for forging ahead and pushing myself. I don't know how I did it, but I did, and I feel like much more of an accomplished person, after this academic year. I've been living in an apartment and paying my rent, utilities, etc., by myself. It's not at all easy! But I am forever grateful for the opportunities I have, and how far I've come, and how much I'm willing to do to achieve my dreams and make progress towards them.

You may have noticed how spotty I've been on social media, this past academic year. Obviously I've been busy (hahaha *cries*), but also, I've been applying to companies and programs for internship positions since November. It's been a rough process; I hate waiting, and I hate that they won't tell you that you didn't get the position. It was a frustrating six months, and discouraging too.

But I'm extremely happy to say that I landed a wonderful internship! I'll be putting my engineering skills to good use, with the state government. I'm not sure I'm able to say more than that, but everyone just "oooo" and "ahhh" with me please! I am thrilled to get an internship within the subject matter of my field (i.e. environmental engineering), and it is close to my apartment in the city (so I can just take a bus a short distance to the building), and it's paid! 

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and that I had such a frustrating application process and depressing waiting period because something better - something pretty perfect - was waiting for me down the road. And I thank God for that, and for keeping me strong.

So that's my junior year in a nutshell! Difficulties, stress, sleeplessness - everything is worth it when you see things work out, whether in the form of good grades or a job. I am blessed with both, at the moment!

Other exciting things in my life:

- My sister graduated yesterday! After four years of undergrad, she has a B.S. in bioengineering. She'll be starting at her fancy engineering job in July.

- One of my closest friends at Hopkins graduated on Wednesday! This is both amazing and heartbreaking. She's a senior, a year older than me, so I knew she would be graduating and leaving to go back home to California. But when reality really hits, and you realize you may never see that person again... I felt a little hopeless. Not goodbye, but see you later?

- I'm about to read my 75th book of 2016! Book #75 will probably by Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine. I'm excited!

- On that note, I'm extremely excited to be in the midst of my July review pile, and reviewing those July books, in May. This is good for me! So that when Senior Fall semester will start and I'll be mercilessly swamped, I can stop and catch my breath a little, in terms of blogging.

And that's pretty much what I have going on right now, and what I had going on this past academic year. I'm not ready to be a senior! But I am ready for new things to come. =)