It’s wonderful to see familiar faces this fall, as girls who were formerly First Bytes campers are now undergraduate computer science students.

This summer I had an opportunity to work in a dual role as a software developer and a systems analyst. Being the indecisive person that I am, this setup was perfect for me.

By this point in the year, I’ve agonized over my schedule for next semester ad infinitum. I have spreadsheet upon spreadsheet and Google docs galore. But have I reached a decision about what to take yet? Nope.

We recently had a guest speaker in a computer science ethics class that I’m taking. He was a researcher, and his work was centered on the use and effect of video games in society. We began class with a series of iClicker questions about our habits towards video games - how often we played them, what kinds, and a myriad of other questions.

The first question was easy: How often do you play these games? My answer: Never.

I’d like the start this semester with a clarification. In one of my last articles, I explained the importance of choosing a schedule wisely to set up your future success. I still believe that this is important, but with the start of a new and not-yet-stressful semester, I’m thinking a little bit differently.

There’s a lot of really amazing stuff out there, and without taking advantage of it, I can imaging that you might end up with some regrets in the future.

I know it’s the end of the semester and we have finals and projects to finish up. I know stress levels are crazy. I know next semester is literally the last thing people want to think about right now. Fair enough.

Most people who know me would agree that I’m not very spontaneous. I like to go to sleep at the same time every night, write my blog on the same day every week, and when the grocery store is out of the brand of shampoo I like, I’m a sad, sad person.

In some ways this is good. I get my homework done on time, I’m almost always pretty well rested, and my hair is usually the same level of frizzy.

Being a student in UTCS sometimes feels like being at a giant, never-ending career fair. There’s a different company in the atrium almost every day, and it’s hard to walk through the lab and not hear anybody talking about the next interview they have.

While it’s great to have opportunities, I think that it’s also important to realize that this sort of environment isn’t normal, and it can have some strange effects on how we view ourselves.

It's been a very hard week: my laptop is in repair and I had a program due that neither I nor the TA helping me could seem to debug. On top of that, I'm pretty unsure of what I'm going to take next semester since a lot of the classes I needed were closed.