Junior Year

August 31, 2024

The year everything got a little more real.

There's always that one year in college where things stop being light and breezy. Where you're constantly swamped, juggling five things at once, running on caffeine and vibes.

Junior year was that year for me.

Highlights of the Year

• Campus Life
  Joined the Michigan Taekwondo Team. I've done karate most of my life, so this felt like a natural continuation-until I started getting kicked in the face. Regularly.
  Played for the Michigan Cricket Team, which finally made the jump from tennis ball to leather ball.
  Joined MRacing and worked on autonomous control systems-my first real dive into applied robotics. Loved it.
  Took Operating Systems and Algorithms, two of Michigan's most brutal courses.
  Built a cloth piano-relearned how to play the piano, this time on fabric. Beethoven would be confused, but maybe impressed.
  Built a C++ multithreaded game engine-and played games for testing purposes.
  Tried my hand at a few hackathons-learned a lot, built some cool stuff, and lived on caffeine.
  Most of my memories from junior year involve bruises from taekwondo, passing out in random libraries, and taste-testing every flavor of Monster and Red Bull like it was a side quest.
  Also got my heart broken-again. India collapsing in the World Cup final. On home soil. Classic.
• A Few Memorable Events
  Michigan Football became national champions! We beat Ohio State again-of course. I couldn't make it to many games through all the chaos, but I did get to experience the historic Victors' Walk after we won it all. GO BLUE.
  Dressed up as Rick from Rick and Morty for Halloween.
  Played in multiple cricket tournaments, won Man of the Match awards, and helped Michigan win the Midwest Championship!
  Watched the solar eclipse-a true bucket-list moment.
  Rushed to the ER in the middle of the night.
• Spring Break in Costa Rica
  More like an epic road trip.
  Drove through mountains, wandered through rainforests, chilled at stunning beaches.
  Drove for over 5 hours a day-tiring, but totally worth it.
  Got lost in the misty mountain. No signal, no visibility, no clue where we were-somehow made it out alive. Classic.
• Summer in Ann Arbor
  Worked in two research labs doing robotics-built a racecar in one, explored distributed systems in the other.
  Went to Ohio twice. Saw Lake Erie, a couple of parks, and played some mini golf.
  Cooked every single meal for 3 months and went to the gym every day. Peak college achievement, honestly.
  Played Division One cricket in the Michigan Cricket League. Felt good to be back on the pitch.
  Played a bunch of games:
  • God of War: Ragnarök - might just have the best game ending I've ever seen.
  • Ghost of Tsushima - incredible swordplay, smooth combat, and hands down the most beautiful game I've ever played. Now I kinda want to go to Japan.
  • Hogwarts Legacy - brought me back to middle school Harry Potter days.
  • Spider-Man - swinging through New York never gets old.
  My era of moving away from games with guns and cars.
• Back to India
  Realized it might be my last trip to India for a while-a tough pill to swallow. So I made the most of it: hit all my favorite food spots, overdosed on filter coffee, ate way too much pani puri, and checked off everything I wanted to do.
  Took weekend trips with friends-one to Mysore, another to Bangalore.
  Spent real quality time with friends and family. It felt like a full-circle moment-from my gap year to now. Same places, same people, but very different lives. School felt like so long ago.
  Danced at a wedding. Didn't fall. Peak performance.
• Quotes That Hit Different This Year
  "We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience." - John Dewey
  "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." - Robert Brault
  "Sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is rest." - Dalai Lama

Looking Back

There's always going to be more work. More projects. More deadlines.
But somewhere in all of that, you have to make time for the things that keep you grounded-football games, the gym, cooking, or just being around people who remind you who you are.

I'm still figuring it out. But junior year pushed me in the right direction.

Time is moving way too fast. I'm graduating in a semester.

Here's to Senior year.

Peace.