thoughts of heck

Today is the week before my second semester, the first year of my graduate school program. I am excited, and to be honest, scared.

This is exactly what I felt last semester. I might be expecting this feeling now right before class starts. I suppose every semester I move away and away from my comfort zone of knowledge, and it feels freeing. I guess that’s why the words “scientific enlightenment” is called the way it is.

This might seem like I’m romanticizing my journey, but I guess I just need a way to contain my excitement by writing a blog post.

Last semester, I was on probation and hence required to enroll in undergraduate courses, despite my undergraduate being aligned with the graduate program I am in. For more context, I am taking a Masters in Computer Science, and my undergrad is Computer Science. I didn’t really have good grades in my undergrad, as I had a wildly formative brain during those years. Anyway, taking some undergrad courses was a welcome requirement for me, I do need some review on my majors.

Glad to say I had good grades on my courses last semester, something I couldn’t achieve during undergrad. I have since refined, and still refining, my study routine and habits while doing full-time work.

I think what excites me the most this semester is that I’ll be finally taking graduate-level courses, and I know the learning approach would be different. I want to read relevant research papers and do simulations and experiments. This semester one of the courses I’m taking is an Introduction to Quantum Computing course, which I didn’t expect would open. Thankfully I brushed up on some Linear Algebra during Christmas break, hopefully it pays off. I might need to explore quantum computing frameworks like Qiskit, if I have the time.

I suppose this wraps up my thoughts for now.