Hi Folks ....
This comes as a response to many requests I got asking to share the experience (both technical and life) with all of you out there .... and specially to help students who are trying to apply grad-schools.
Ok .. Back to the topic "Dreams Meet the Reality" ... Achieving dreams is one common goal you see in every human being in the world. So what does actually mean by achieving a dream ? Are you done with your life ... you can live happily ever after ... this is not what you expect ... of course I want more ... this is a terrible mistake ... so what ...
Once you achieve something in your life that you were waiting for years, the instinct feeling could be any of the above. The dangerous among those is to feel that you have made a terrible mistake and at the other end of it, its quite natural to have a more higher dream once you achieve one. The same dream might affect two people differently since they might see it in different ways. So why on earth I am talking about dreams here ... Well entering to a grad school and specially to a one that I am already in, was "THE" dream of mine for sometime and I feel really "happy" about it.
Here I am going to share my thoughts, the way I see this achievement. I am the least experienced person to talk about it and yet I am among latest to experience it, so why not ... For sure these impressions I have now will definitely get changed as I move on with this life but then I am in a different stage of life ...
Starting way back when I was doing my undergrads in UCSC, I was not sure what to do .. where to go ... (but not the development for sure), then with the help of my "ever helpful" lecturers paved me this path. It was not a very good start, I didn't have time to look for the correct universities, contact professors ... GRE score wasn't that good and I had to re-schedule TOEFL couple of times. Here comes the results ... rejected ... rejected ... and sometimes you have to bear the comments like this which does not make any sense "You have a strong record and have done good work, but our admissions process (as always) was very competitive this year and we had to turn away many highly qualified applicants" ... then suddenly out of no where one Friday morning (which I don't think I will ever forget that date) ... "Congratulations and welcome to the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia! I am pleased to advise that subject to the approval of the Faculty of Graduate Studies" Honestly I still can not figure out how I got selected to this ... (as it is in life) when it is started things keep on flowing in ... another one for a Phd (by that time I have already decided to confirm the UBC offer).
Again had to go a very very rough time getting Visa ... police report ... no available air-tickets ... you basically come to a point "I don't want this" ... days are closing to leave ... you are starting to feel things you never felt before ... the care and love of your parents ... of your friends ... all the luxuries you were having being at home .... simply because you know you are going to loose them soon. At this point you start think whether the decision you took is correct ... whether you can stand alone there without them. (well I am here now !!!)
After going through all sort of hassles, I am here now ... Am I enjoying the dream getting realized ... ? Well ... Yes ... when you see what is around you ... the opportunities yes I am ... No ... I do not have enough time even think about it (when you can't even think of a time to sleep !!!)
So where am I after getting my dream come true ... the bitter part of the dream is where it meets with the reality ... (believe me its something totally different with what you think of it is ) ...
Well I will give my views on it ... I will leave it to you to decide where you would be ... So this is I am talking having 6 weeks of experience in graduate life ...
During first couple of weeks, everything you see ... everything around you are totally new to you and you are attracted to the fact that you have never experience such a thing before in you life ... the culture ... the natures beauty ... thinking the fact that you are on your own ( you have the full authority to your life) .. lots of new research projects ...
Then comes the reality ... you start to feel there are no one to help you out there ... its upto you to do everything which were earlier happening without even you knowing about it ... (cooking washing cleaning) ... you start to feel am I the least knowledgeable student in the batch ... how did I get here ... why did they select me ... then you try to remember the first person who told you to do the graduate studies .,... (u know just to say hello) .. Can I make it through ... Will I get failed ...
If you survive that part .... you start to think ok ... this is hell of a experience now you know everything one need to know .. to cook, to clean .. to wash clothes ... feel like being a man. Then why can't I stand among other students ... I am like them too ... Research opportunities are enormous here .. so why don't I get maximum use of it ... (still for most part of it you will feel that you alone here ... no one is there). Suddenly you get busy as hell ... you have to study ... have to teach ... have to do research ... which we used to do either one of them at a given time .. no you have to cope with three things... and funny thing is you can not complain about it ... have to read 6 -8 (15 -10 page) research papers weekly ... this is not funny at all
Where am I now ? .....
