Looking Back: One Year Since My Acceptance to Carnegie Mellon

Today marks one year since I received the fat letter in the mail, informing me that I had been accepted to my number one choice university, Carnegie Mellon University.  While I initially felt uneasy about going to a university known as one of the hardest in the world, I can say with confidence that I have not once regretted the decision, and I could not love this university more.  I have had so many great memories in the past year, and here are a few of the highlights:

It all started with Orientation.  During one of the best weeks of my life, I would take part in many exciting events, including Playfair and House Wars, where I met many awesome people that would become a large part of my life over the next year.

I would then be initiated into the Mudge Life.  One of my favorite communities ever, the people of Mudge are some of the coolest I have ever met, and I am happy to say that I will be returning to them as a mentor next year!

Following Orientation, we would become “official” members of Carnegie Mellon University after our convocation, which as expected, began with the famous bagpipes.

At the end of the week, we smelled something terrible.

Then, we began our initiation into the Pittsburghese culture and had our first Primanti’s sandwich. 

And I also took two of my friends back home to experience the rural Pennsylvanian culture.

I joined The Tartan and became a weekly writer.  It’s been a great year with great people and a newspaper full of great stories.  I would become active on campus and also make many great memories through the CMU jazz ensemble, Solar Splash, and Young Americans For Liberty.

We stocked up for our first zombie war.  Several people on my floor survived the Humans vs. Zombies apocalypse.  I was taken down after a few days…

We celebrated our school pride with CIT Day… And I made it on Overheard at Carnegie Mellon.

We celebrated Google’s Birthday.  Yes, they had a birthday party on our campus.

We witnessed the greatness that is the giant duck.  Still, no one knows what purpose it served, but it was pretty awesome!

18-100 was a breeze… Well, maybe it wasn’t that easy.

Instead of going to the zoo, the zoo came to us.

We had a blast at Kennywood Fright Night and were confronted by this guy.

We sampled the foods of various different lands.

We witnessed the exciting inauguration of President Suresh and heard inspiring words from both him and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.  Throughout the year, we heard many amazing speakers.  I had the honor of also hearing Matt Rogers from Nest Labs.

We rocked out at some concerts.  My favorite was the Smallpools concert at the Underground.  Chiddy Bang and Timeflies were also great, and Mac Miller and Icona Pop at Carnival should be an awesome experience!

I began working with Appcubator, an awesome tech startup focused on making it easier and faster than ever to create a web application.

We had some late nights in Hamerschlag!  While Build-18 did not turn out entirely as we expected, it was still a success in the end!

We got a new soldering iron.

We made many Dave and Andy’s runs!  I took my sisters there to sample the greatness.  I’ve been fortunate to see my family most weekends and explore the city of Pittsburgh with them!

We survived Image Lab… and the Text Editor Lab… and Peg Lab.  Bring it on VM Lab!

I had the chance to work on a solar racing system with some awesome people.  I can’t wait to rejoin them in the fall!

And I made some great friends along the way!

With Carnival, the CIT Silicon Valley trip, and the summer approaching, I cannot wait for the many more great moments to be had!