Katrina Delos Reyes

With less than 8 months left to my degree in CS and math, I panicked thinking, “This is really it for tech, huh? Just coding away in Java or C++ to make this button do that or to maybe make this thing faster using a ‘cool algorithm’?” As I sat in the lounge of my off-campus apartment (shoutout to The Varsity) procrastinating on some CMSC451 problem most likely, I knew — I just knew — that this couldn’t possibly be it. And that there was a way to make a bigger impact and to make tech fun and sustainable and something I could see myself doing for a long, long time. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Year One of adulthood was full of so many unexpected opportunities to learn, hurt, appreciate, reflect, and explore. There were times I thought to myself, “Is this really it? Is being an adult just doing this same thing over and over again?” And there were other times I thought, “Holy crap… why so many changes??” Looking back at the end of Year One leaves me in awe of how much I’ve grown and in humility of how much I still can grow. Here are just a few major takeaways from my Year One.