School

I went to visit my high school on Wednesday and spoke to a few ESA classes about college life and going to college. The school itself seems to be doing well. Fresh paint and new classrooms coming. The kids seem the same as ever. There's so much potential. These kids can go far if they know what's out there. I wish I could help out somehow. Should I dedicate some time to help these kids out? How should I do it? What should I do? I suppose I can help them with college applications and essays. I can do that from afar. I can be much more effective if I get to know the kids personally but I don't think I have that kind of time. I wish I can convince these kids to apply out of state and to "Ivy Leagues." I really think some of them have a chance.

As I was walking to the school, I remembered that that school was the reason why I chose to study civil engineering. I had heard the story of a Navy Seabee talk about his rewarding experience of building a school in a developing country. I had just finished 9th grade at that time and immediately thought about doing something for my high school. I thought that if I studied civil engineering, someday, I can come back and help rebuild the school so that it can actually accommodate the 2,000+ student and staff that it does. I think that was what made me stick with civil rather than going after, say, mechanical engineering back when I was still choosing a major.

Anyway, speaking of civil engineering, I'm having a hard time sticking to this 10 unit limit. I think I'll just end up sitting in on a lot of classes. I just realized today that one of the classes I wanted to take in this quarter is actually offered in Winter instead. And if that wasn't bad enough, I realized I forgot to include one of the required classes in my plan. So I had to rework my entire plan for the year. I'm pretty sure Borja is my advisor but he's away until the first day of school. So I'm a little concerned about who will be taking care of advising his students during orientation.