Although great things happened in 2016, I felt pretty unnecessarily sad for most of it. One of the defining moments of that year was finally vocalizing those feelings of sadness to a good friend in late September. At the end of 2016, I would have never predicted that the one word to summarize my 2017 would be "happiness".

2017 started off quietly but presented me with great news by the end of January. I flew out to Plano for an on-site interview at Capital One, and before I even got back to my home in Austin on the day of the interview, I had received a congratulatory phone call from my recruiter. After two and a half years of searching, I had finally landed a software engineering internship!

In February, I spent a few days in College Station for the SWE Region C conference and felt invigorated after spending time with some old friends there. Read more in "Visiting College Station"!

If I were to pinpoint the most significant moment in 2017, I would have to say that it occurred at the end of April when I watched Kimi no Na wa for the second time in theaters. This movie has changed my outlook on life so much that I think that I'll need to dedicate another post it. And yes, I'm still very much obsessed. (Read: please buy me Kimi no Na wa merch.)

After the stress of spring finals, I started a summer in Plano. I tried out new things, fully adopted a new mindset, experienced the freedom of having a car, nearly died on a roller coaster twice.... Although I ended up leaving on a bad note, the summer was wonderful overall.

In the fall, I started out taking 21 credit hours while going through the recruiting process for a full-time job. By mid-September, I could already feel myself burning out, and for the first time ever, I learned to let go and dropped Korean despite how much I wanted to take the class. I ended up with 15 credit hours, and wow, who would have thought that not taking 17-21 credit hours of CS/engineering courses would free up so much time? Of course, Texas 4000 steadily took up more and more time in my calendar, but it has been incredibly rewarding. In the past two months, I've become comfortable with clipping in and out of a bike, and I've ridden over 600 miles. Most importantly, I've seen that there's so much I can do if I set my mind to it.

Some smaller happy moments of 2017: saw my little sister graduate as valedictorian of her high school, switched my typical order of milk tea to mango green tea, found the perfect to-do list app (Amazing Marvin), made deviled eggs for the first time.

Some not-so-great moments of 2017: had wisdom teeth surgery, failed to get involved with CS research, and stressed about school and my future.

In general, I'm not incredibly dedicated to New Year's resolutions, but I think that this year is going to be a good one for them. I will be graduating in May, biking to Alaska in the summer, and starting a new job in September. My prediction is that 2018 is going to be a year of change.

  1. Learn, learn learn! This includes paying attention in class and learning things on my own (languages and programming-related knowledge).
  2. Finish off the ride year and take Texas 4000 beyond the summer ride. Organize an amazing inaugural Texas RIDE event in April. Be flexible during the summer ride. Continue cycling after getting back from Alaska. Continue supporting cancer research and cancer support services.
  3. Get involved with Women in STEM initiatives again. I haven't been as active in this since this past May after wrapping up my leadership role with UT SWE.
  4. Network. There's so much to learn from other people!
  5. Stay in contact with friends. Especially since a lot of us are moving on to a new stage in our lives after May of this year, I think that this resolution is something that will be important to keep in mind moving forward.
  6. Journal daily. I've been trying to do this for forever, so let's just keep at it!
  7. Blog at least once a week. Why have a blog with no blog posts?
  8. Post at least one song cover on YouTube. Come on, Victoria. You've been wanting to do this ever since middle school. JUST. DO. IT. Also while you're at it, start to pick up piano, violin, and guzheng again. At least piano, okay?
  9. Make a personal website. Yet another thing I've been procrastinating....
  10. Get back into dance. In particular, I want to pick up ballet and Chinese dance again, and I want to try out hip hop.

Happy New Year!