It’s been a wild journey since I wrote about my experience of deciding to switch from art to a physics career, and since recapping on my first semester of undergrad in 2020. Undergrad was very busy. It felt like I had just started to get into the swing of things, but then we were hit with the Coronavirus pandemic, and my university joined the vast majority in the country to switch to completely remote learning for a semester, then to hybrid, and then back to in-person.

Once I decided that physics was the path for me, the implication of that meant getting a PhD. The process of applying and getting accepted into a graduate physics program was demanding, but rewarding.

During the pandemic, I took advantage of the remote learning to take an electrical engineering internship. I worked on projects for the Department of Defense, and then got a summer internship in Colorado to work on a physics research project for CERN. Later, during senior year, I did a plasma simulation project to investigate the mysterious weather phenomenon, ball lightning.

It was a very productive four years. After graduating, I moved from Florida to upstate New York for graduate school at Univeristy of Rochester. Currently being on winter break in-between semesters feels like the perfect time to recap on my undergrad research projects here.

I’ve just concluded my first semester at technical university pursuing math and physics undergraduate degrees after a palm reader suggested this as a potentially more fulfilling career path for me than art.

When I graduated from high school and community college six years ago, I was certain that I would never want to return to academics. However, since starting school, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that I fit in perfectly! I’ve never felt more at ease and confident in my career direction before.

Are you as surprised as I am?

I enjoy my classes, and often seek additional learning resources outside of class. It feels like a long period of frustration and confusion is finally at a close.

Even still, this was the hardest semester I’ve ever had. The following are two projects that I worked on.

Red Tide Research Project

Much of my work this semester went to my technical writing class. The bulk of the class involved group work, organizing 1-3 group meetings a week, all awhile researching an approved topic. Our topic was red tide.

Red tide is a kind of microorganism that proliferates so rapidly that it turns seawaters red. It is a kind of harmful algae bloom that produces dangerous toxins that can affect respiratory and nervous systems.

When red tide is in bloom, the toxins it creates become airborne via sea spray. If inhaled, these toxins cause respiratory problems. If fish that have been contaminated with red tide are accidentally ingested, these toxins can cause Paralytic Shellfish Posioning, and can be fatal.

Of course, humans aren’t the only animals affected by red tide. It can cause massive fish kills, also kill marine mammals and birds, and can devastate any ecosystem in its wake.

When red tide affects an area, beaches are closed. It disrupts an area’s economy by negatively affecting tourism, fishing, and recreational industries. Red tide is a complex problem that negatively impacts public health, the ecosystem, and local economies.

My goal with this project as team leader was to create a report that would be useful: something that could even be referenced by people working on addressing red tide.

Over two months ago I packed my little car to the brim with my belongings, and roadtripped with a beloved 3,000 miles, catching many a landmark and animal crossing in between.

It was my first roadtrip to the West coast, jam-packed with activities like hiking, horseback riding in a national park, visiting sacred sites, and the like. An exhilarating, albeit exhausting trip (I may have broke down sobbing multiple times, but more on that later) that I will no doubt be dripping with inspiration from for the rest of my life.

I was looking forward to the end of the exhaustion. The schedule and budget was tight, so most nights were spent sleeping in the car. I hardly remember driving through the whole state of Colorado, fatigue combined with my anxiety about cliff driving* has made the memories fuzzy.

I am back in Florida now, but my stay will be short, as after some thinking, I’ve decided… This summer I’m moving to Seattle, Washington!

It’s quite a surprise to be moving clear across on the country like this, but it feels right. During my two week visit I was expecting to discover things that would make me hesitant, but it just confirmed for me that it’s the right place and time to take the leap!

For seventeen months outstretched over 2014 and 2015, I wrote for my blog that I called Cheating College. I gave it this slogan: lifelong learning without lifelong debt.

Cheating College was a way for me to chronical my alternative education pursuits and to dispel advice I learned while on my journey. It was also a great way for me to build the habit of writing regularly and creating content with the intent to be read by a specific audience.

It empowered me to figure things out for people, to study problems and present solutions, and to make myself of value to others.

During that time, I wrote over 30 articles, totaling over 54,000 words, and made over thirty custom graphics/ illustrations.

I shut the blog down when I hit a number of brick walls in my career and family lives (which I will share once the emotions aren’t so raw…) When I shut down the blog, at first it felt like I had removed a part of myself from existence, the beacon that had been letting the world know “I am here, and this is what I do” had been extinguished…

In the uncomfortable darkness, I eventually learned more about myself and how I want to start again: better, stronger, wiser.

Here’s a list of what I learned from the entire blogging experience, and how I will do things differently this time around.