I took 12 credits worth of classes. Classes are listed as follows:
DEPT ### (# credits, grade): Description
Quarter GPA: 3.93, Cumulative GPA: 3.94
This quarter was a classic example of "you win some, you lose some." Going into this quarter, I was slated to take 17 credits worth of classes. You may notice that in actuality, I only took 12 credits. Why the discrepancy? I had signed up for an Honors class this quarter, but it was suddenly cancelled with a week left until the start of the quarter. And since it was so late, I had no ability to change to a different Honors course as all of the remaining offerings conflicted with current classes, which themselves couldn't be changed due to the alternatives being full or the alternatives requiring prerequisites that I haven't met. A very unfortunate situation all around.
What then, made this a "you win some"? Glad you asked. Because I ended up with a much lighter workload than I expected I would have, I was able to do more other things this quarter. Extracurriculars, tutoring, and in general indulging a bit in the social life that I only barely experienced in the Spring Quarter.
And man, was social life soooo much more lively than last year. Partly from the more relaxed restrictions from COVID, I got to regularly meet many cool people on the fourth floor of Terry! As I've said a few times before, I'm not that much of a social person in general, but the great thing about living in Honors is that it's kind of like a guarantee that most everyone at least isn't a chronic partyperson, and does care at least somewhat about school. I love the late night talks about philosophy and politics and religion and other potentially controversial topics with people who know how to be respectful of different opinions. Or more neutral talks about literally eating whole pints of ice cream for meals just because?? (Ok, maybe I'm a bit opinionated here oops). A few poker nights, walks on the nearby trails, and just random stuff all around. It's definitely easier to be social with this bunch than with most other people, which is awesome!
This leads to one pretty common activity I got to do as a result of having increased spare time - tutoring! Now, I already tutor middle school and high school students for a job. But with extra time on my hands, I decided to help the mathers in Terry with their math. Not as real tutoring, I didn't ask for payment or anything, but just as an "on-call help" I suppose. From the several MATH 134 students in Terry, to people doing their MATH 12X prerequisites, I helped lots of people, and it was really nice putting my tutoring skills to work with my peers.
Outside Terry shenanigans, I got to attend Chess club in-person. It's been a while since I've actually played with real chess pieces, as opposed to on a computer. I personally feel more confident over the board, so it's great and you can chat with your opponent, as long as they aren't too serious or tryhard. 😉 I also met with the Math Club a couple of times, and next quarter I potentially will do a reading group with them. We'll see, as next quarter is shaping up to be a busy quarter. I also continued something I started in the summer - participation in a non-affiliated Overwatch team. It's for scrubs like me (oops) but it's mostly for fun, and is a good way to relax.
I can't end talking about my social life without mentioning my roommate, Cole Welch! We've known each other since middle school, and we planned to room together last year. Last year didn't exist, so we're rooming this year. He's a great roommate, he's considering three majors (ACMS, Physics, and Astronomy), and he's great to talk to. We've helped each other with our homework (usually just as someone to talk to, ensuring we can actually voice our reasoning) and sometimes delve into interesting talks - Cole took a linguistics class last homework and sometimes shared what he learned with me. Overall a great time!
The last thing to touch on is academics, of course, the main reason (but in terms of reflection content, the more boring reason) to go to university. CSE 311 was ... interesting, to say the least. Most of the course is actually just simple proof math, which ... suffice it to say I'm already very comfortable with. The last part of the course was new and interesting, talking about finite state autonoma and grammar systems. During the class, I ended up working with someone named Effie Zheng. I guess this was as an extension of my tutoring side, as I feel good about my ability to proof.
My two math classes, on the other hand, were amazing classes. MATH 334 introduced me to some set theory in the n-Dimensional plane, and in general helped me better conceptualize n-Dimensional concepts of differentiability, which I thought I already understood pretty well. And MATH 342 allowed me to work with many smart people on Putnam questions, always a challenge. The Putnam went well this year despite it being more difficult than usual, as I believe I matched last year's score of 30.
I don't know what to say in conclusion. This is the best social life I've had in basically forever, and I can see my ability to handle a social life growing, which is great! Maybe my progress can be obfuscated with being in a comfortable environment, but whatever. Social progress! Woo!