What was your favorite extracurricular activity during your time at UW?
Acapella
Animusic Ensembles
Computer Science Club and/or Data Science Club
Design team
Doing a URA
I basically joined, like, everything. I don't think I can actually answer much here. I guess I wish I picked up a sport?
I wish I helped organizing Hack The North — it seems like a dedicated and cool community and a great way to give back to the community while learning from others around.
Intramural soccer
Intramurals
Jujitsu
Other intramurals and table tennis club earlier
Poker Club
Smash Club
Socratica
Something related to board games probably
Tech+ Organizing Team
UW Climbing Club
Varsity sports
dance or music clubs
running club
the ultimate frisbee team (at least, regret not trying out)
What is one extracurricular you regret not joining?
Many people have regrets about not joining clubs, so be sure to try things out while you have the time! If you missed your chance in university, it's never too late to look for communities online or locally.
What is the best life hack/tip?
Appreciate what you have now and make the most of it, youth is fleeting
Be consistent
Chill when you need to
Do not compromise your sleep (if you can help it!)
Don't skip class
Don't stress, just finesse
Fake it till you make it
For the love of god, use your phone's calendar.
Good things can happen to you -- you just need to say "yes".
Great friends and network above all else
Having courses only 4 days of the week
Hollow out a travel pillow (or make your own) and use it for extra travel space on an airplane.
If you go to Burger King in dec - jan, you can get coupons for 5.99 whopper meals
Keep a to-do list
Make promises to yourself and keep them, repeat until it becomes second nature
Never work past dinnertime if you can avoid it
Spam notion calendars for everything
The Sobeyes on Columbia has really steep discounts on expiring foods after like 6pm.
Timebox
Try my best, but know that the final result is largely out of my control.
You are the average of the top 5 people you spend the most time with, so choose your friends wisely because these are the people who will influence you greatly even without you noticing.
go to the gym
make a to-do list for the immediate future, like next day or two
put yourself out there + grades aren't everything
What is your favorite inspirational quote/words to live by?
"But if you have no names in the hat, how can you except to be drawn from the hat? You can't. Everyday, you gotta put your name in it. At some point, it goes juicer mode. You just gotta believe. You gotta believe in yourself and what you do." — xQc
"Get them work done"
"Bet on Yourself" — Fred Vanvleet
"Sometimes you have to build a life, not a resume."
"live laugh love"
"most things are worth trying at least once :)"
"I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed" — Calvin's Dad, Calvin and Hobbes
"It's not that deep"
"Let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall" — Elrond (J. R. R. Tolkien)
"Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind"
"One day or day one"
"Don't stress, just finesse"
"If it weren't for the last minute nothing would get done"
"I am built upon the small things I do everyday, and the end results are no more than a byproduct of that." — Shinsuke Kita (Haikyuu)
fuck around and find out
"Don't Panic." — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Comparison is the thief of joy
Carpe Diem
"It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn." — Thomas Fuller
"It'll all workout at the end because you wont stop until it does"
"The harder I work, the luckier I get"
"Nothing wants to be in the way of something relentless"
"Life is a series of predictable milestones"
What is your most embarrassing story from your time at UW?
All the student apartment layouts are the same, so one time I was visiting my boyfriend walked into someone else's apartment thinking I was in the right unit. I walked in confused that their decors changed. It turned out I clicked the wrong floor in the elevator but I didn't realize until I made it past their entire living room + kitchen and was about to open someone's bedroom. A random girl walked out and we were face to face for a second before I dashed out.
Blanking during a presentation
First year some friends visited and knocked on my window in rez and scared me
Got made fun of extremely hard for not knowing what "froyo" meant. Like, I never put together that it meant "FROzen YOgurt" until just before graduating. It was just some word I knew of but I didn't connect the dots and I never looked into it. This was a disaster.
Got walked in on by my partners sister.
I got arrested
I missed a meeting for a group project and was way over the top on my apology.
I was in a class that I found to be super boring, and since I was also very tired, I incorrectly said that we were over time when there were still 30 minutes remaining.
I was making pasta once and didn't have a strainer, so when I tried emptying the water from the pot I dropped all the pasta in the sink. After rinsing it and reboiling it, I ate the very mushy sink pasta for dinner :')
Left an exam as soon as I was allowed because I didn't know the content, another person left with me and as soon as we got outside the exam room they started talking to me about how easy the exam was.
Policy 71
Prior to covid, interviewed at Tatham Centre. Used a PC, which had a headset. I assumed it was connected, and spent a good amount of the interview trying to figure out why I couldn't hear anything. Turns out it wasn't connected (skull emoji)
Rushing an assignment and submitting it completely wrong (uploading the entire assignment pdf to one question box of crowdmark) at the very last minute of the deadline. Begged a TA on Piazza to let me fix it and they miraculously fixed it for me... the kindness offered to second years
Speaking French (poorly) while drunk... prétendument; je ne me souviens de rien...
When I spent the night with someone and then called them in the morning and said I couldn't do a relationship because I was scared at the prospect of doing one.
attempting to understand the second half of math 135
forgetting my part of the script during a presentation in first year and dragging the team down due to time constraints as a result
walked into the wrong apartment in rez-one because i accidentally got off at the wrong floor, tried to get into "my room" but for some reason my code wasn't working????
What is the nicest thing someone at UW did for you?
Come over when I had a panic attack
For my last meal on campus the girl at the CMH pizza station blessed up my pizza with an entire mountain of cheese without me even asking. Like, it was legit overflowing and was droopy with the heaviness of melted cheese. It made my days for many days. Thank you.
Giving me a referral to FAANG
Helped me when I got arrested
Helping me in the gym to improve my form/give me tips
Just before graduating, my friends made me a bouquet of folded notes with personal messages written on them. It really meant a lot to me and I was glad to feel appreciated and cared about.
My CS 135 ISA encouraged me to continue engaging in class after I opened up to him that I was ostracized for being talkative. This reassured me that I was not doing anything wrong and did not need to change my behaviours to please unreasonable people.
Offered to walk through a snowstorm to come over to my residence when I was grieving my late grandmother
Pull weight in a group project
Reach out
Someone smiled at me at the gym before I started a squat day and afterwards she let me work in with her and we became gym friends afterwards :)
They let me get to know them, and that changed my whole worldview. I will always hold you dearly <3.
Took time out of their day to come out to my residence and hang out when he barely even knew me
Watched me talk and cry and hugged me and told me that things will be alright.
being friendly in class
friends who always cared for me and showed respect, in general
give me tips on form at PAC
make an effort to involve me in their interests and go to extracurriculars together
What is the nicest thing you did for someone at UW?
Been there for other people, offer free interviews, and free help
Carry multiple group members' averages
Helped someone move out of their apartment with zero notice when a bad roommate situation went nuclear.
I anonymously got my professor baked goodies on his anniversary cause he mentioned it a week prior
I taught my friend an entire half of a course the night before the midterm and helped him pass the test.
In the gym I've told girls that I like their gym outfits and that they are super strong
Offered resume and interview help
Referring them to a job
Walk some drunk girls home
covered for someone's food costs at SLC
idk, wish I did more but I'm introverted and struggled to make connections
lent an ear and lots of time
making sure people get included in activities
tech+ mentor program
What is one regret you have after finishing university?
Asking a girl out
Being too hard on myself and not developing my interests outside of school and work.
Didn't send enough time with friends
Didn't socialize enough. Didn't get gf
Didn't take pure math.
I maybe could've gone out to social stuff a bit more?
I wish I had gotten involved in more things sooner. I mean, I guess COVID would've made that kind of hard, but still.
I wish I stuck with 1 extracurricular with more dedication, like something I would be more consistent with and pour a lot of hours and effort in and where I have a more consistent community.
Not caring enough about school, dropping out of co-op, fast tracking
Not developing better study habits
Not exploring the city more
Not going on exchange
Not having enough fun
Not joining more clubs and making more meaningful university friendships
Not making more connections and friends
Not putting myself out there to meet new people
Spending lockdown poorly.
That I didn't start doing research earlier
not doing a URA, not going on exchange
not joining more clubs and meeting more people
not learning more about some of my friends
What is one thing that you wish you could tell your first-year self?
Apply to more jobs externally and ask for referrals.
Develop better study habits
Don't do what I did to get arrested
Don't work too hard. Build meaningful relationships. Don't worry about getting into FAANG - they're overrated anyways
Due tomorrow, do tomorrow
Everything will work out and you will be fine
Getting a big name coop is not necessarily a prerequisite to having a good full-time job.
Go have some fun
Go on exchange man
Go out more (and don't have a global pandemic hit)
It's OK to spend money on yourself. That's what it's there for.
Join more clubs and talk to people you dumbass.
Join more clubs!
Just do it
Look up what a transgender person is and think very hard about how that might apply to you.
Manage your time better and put yourself out there.
Start going to the gym earlier, invest in bitcoin and nvidia, be strict about your sleep schedule, never trust a fart and start studying for exams earlier.
Stop partying so much
You will find your friends, and everything you are stressed about right now is completely inconsequential.
You've already found the people you need to help you through this.
don't worry, you'll be fine.
go to the gym
go with the flow
intentional living
What is the best lesson you learned from your time at UW?
Be kind to yourself
Being easier on myself and recognizing that the results are largely out of my control is conducive to overcoming ongoing difficulties.
Don't be afraid to take the road less crowded
Don't assume that others will take the lead.
Help others and let others help you.
Helping your friends out, and getting them to help you is important, but sometimes its up to you to grind it out
How to really, truly, love myself. It's hard, and I'm still not there yet, but I've learned it more and more as I've gone on.
I am very resilient. Im one of the strongest people out there. Im proud of who I am
Just being resilient, you have to get over Ls real quick, so learn from mistakes without getting upset at yourself.
Narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths; they exist outside of fairy tales and they walk among us.
Proof by induction.
The value of a great friend group!
There will always be someone better than you and that's okay, you just need to focus on improving yourself
There's many people smarter than you. Focus on yourself and try your best.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and through the most painful experiences you get to learn the most.
You don't need to be smart to succeed
focus on whatever makes you happy, everything else is secondary
fuck around and find out
how to work hard?
sometimes, it's ok to be a shark (if you stop moving, you DIE). but usually, it's better to take a breather and help yourself before continuing.
What is your favorite memory from your time at UW?
Chilling in CSC with friends
Dancing the night away at the Math Grad Ball.
Drinking with the boys, meeting my current girlfriend
Finishing my last final exam.
Going for a walk across campus, feeling like I'd never know anybody or fit in... only to run into somebody I knew, which lifted my spirits. We're more connected than we realize, even those of us who don't go out much.
Hanging out and partying with friends
I was sitting underneath the big red stairs in E7 some evening in third year, eating and talking with some of my friends, and someone pointed out that the stairs looked like crewmates from Among Us marching down towards us. We laughed about that for so long and it just felt really good being with them in that moment.
Late night baking with my friends
Late nights at hackathons, the jank workarounds and the euphoria of a winning project
Making dinner with a closely-knit group of friends I found at mathNEWS and realizing that I could live happily like this forever.
My friends and I climbed RCH at night, got caught by the campus police, and almost got kicked out of undergrad.
Only moments I can remember is eating meals with friends
Walking ring road with friends late at night to talk about life
biking during the summer!
days and nights of grind for finals
finally getting to do the pub crawl birthday party we've been planning for 4 years (that was thrown off by COVID in first year and co-op off-terms afterwards)
getting fucked over by buldak hot noodles
intramurals, 5A bullsharks are forever 🫡
waking up at 4 am to play board games with friends in 1A