Wow. Where in the world did the last eight and a half months go? It feels like I only just started my freshman year of college, and now I'm suddenly done with my junior year. I'm certainly starting to understand the whole phenomenon of time going faster as you get older. Soon enough, next May in fact, I'm actually going to have to be ready to, as the saying goes, "enter the real world." Holy wow. I have certainly known that the day would come, but I cannot quite say I envisioned it approaching like a thief in the night.
While, at times, time may go a little faster than I would like it to, I can honestly say that, in retrospect, this year has probably been my best year of college so far. That is a fairly large statement, especially since my freshmen year was simply awesome. However, this year was definitely a winner in many respects. I had some pretty decent classes, made several new friends, deepened relationships with current friends, and was able to further cultivate my relationship with God. Concerning the latter, I am definitely a long way from home, but since He refuses to give up on me, I have every reason to keep on chugging along. God is great. Amen.
So college... Yes, apparently I finished my junior year of college. But wow, what a year. I could not have asked for better bonding times with my friends or for better educational experiences. I had a lot of fun and learned a ton. I would have to say that my work on the Intelligent Water Management System project, which I mentioned in Possible, Not Easy, was by far the most applicable learning experience of my academic career. I was able to apply and further learn major-related concepts on a real world problem and also picked up some intrinsic lessons along the way, particularly that of project management. I am privileged to be able to work on it again in the upcoming year as well. Though at times the work could be discouraging, it was and will continue to be completely worth it in the end.
I also joined my school's 'Student Senate' in February, which later evolved into a run for one of the cabinet positions of our student government association for the upcoming year: Vice President of Finance. As a Business Information Systems major, what on earth possessed me to do that? Well, I think the desire to be further involved in my school coupled with the desire to gain some practical business-y experience with which to widen my horizons drove a good portion of that decision. I ended up running uncontested; ergo, I got the job without a problem (which can probably be both a blessing and a curse...I'll be optimistic and lean more towards blessing). While I know it will definitely be a lot of work, I look forward to serving my school in the various ways that this position will provide. I am also eager to see how I can apply my major to this position. The nature of VP of Finance is not necessarily that of technology, hence the name; however, I strongly believe that there is a huge opportunity to bring my knowledge, abilities, and previous experiences to the table in order to enhance the duties of the position as well as contribute to the overall improvement of the student experience at my school. Needless to say, I am definitely looking forward to taking on this role in late August.
This past school year was definitely a great one, but I am also quite content with it being summer now. I started work again last Wednesday, so I did not really give myself much time off. But that is okay, because it was fully my choice to do so. And, before I forget to mention it, I GET TO ATTEND MY HOME CHURCH FOR MORE THAN ONE OR TWO CONSECUTIVE SUNDAYS AT A TIME!!!! Yes, if you could not tell, that does rather excite me. I love, love, love my church family, and look forward to seeing where God takes us in the coming months. Also, I hope to maintain some kind of regularity in writing posts. So keep checking, and please feel free to share or leave comments! I certainly would not mind a little bit of healthy conversation.
Showing posts with label IWMS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IWMS. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Possible, Not Easy
Wow, it has almost been a month since my last post. My apologies, but I have an entirely good reason for putting off this post for so long. With the exception of this week (thus far), much of my time has been spent working on a project for my Database Applications course.
On a high level, this project, the Intelligent Water Management System project (or simply IWMS), is a three-year contracted project for World Vision through my school. The basic end goal of the project is to create a web application that receives data from water pumps in Africa and allows it to be displayed and worked with in a sensible fashion. I could definitely go into more details, but that is not my purpose for today.
My class and my major's capstone course (which I will be taking next spring) started working on the IWMS project in February and are to have a primitive version of the application working by the end of the semester this May. Two Saturdays ago until the following Tuesday, I personally put in somewhere between 10-20 hours on a database-related issue for the application. Needless to say, it was a very tiring few days. In the end, the issue was resolved and other tasks were subsequently accomplished. However, the road to the end of the problem was very discouraging.
That Saturday night/Sunday morning and Sunday night/Monday morning (each night/early morning ending at about 1:30am) felt like absolute wastes of time and that I was getting nowhere. In retrospect, the 5-6 hours spent across those two days did result in a little bit of progress, but it was not until I decided to get help the following Monday afternoon from my professor that things turned around for the better. After visiting my professor, we worked out a solution in about 20 minutes that I was trying to accomplish for the previous 5-6 hours. While this was indeed a huge relief, I was a little disappointed in the seemingly unnecessary extra amount of time I put into this task.
Later that week, a great friend of mine (who was my freshman roommate, is my current RA, and will be one of my future apartment-mates next year) was talking about how he is seeing God move in regards to his duties as the Student Body Chaplain next year. He said something that gave me a fresh perspective on life: "Faith makes life possible, not easy." While my situation was not directly a faith-based battle, I earnestly believe that the entirety of it all demonstrates faith in the Christian life rather well. I struggled for a relatively long time on a particular issue, but it was not until I surrendered to the reception of help that I ultimately achieved victory. The end goal that I was trying to accomplish was indeed possible, but it was definitely not easy. However, it seemed impossible until I reached for something beyond my own strength and abilities.
In our daily life, we will face many difficult situations. As believers and followers of Christ, we have the opportunity to put our faith in a God who never fails, who will never leave us or forsake us, and who is always looking out for us. In the midst of our difficulties, we need to remember to have faith in Him who makes our life possible. Faith will not necessarily make our circumstances easier, but we can rest in God's omnipotence and omniscience and know that He will make our lives possible and that He will lead us through it all.
God cares about every detail of our lives (Luke 12:7); no matter what kind of a situation you face, bring it to God and have faith that He will lead you through the mess. He is faithful and true, and He will never let you down. Time spans may differ, but God will ultimately guide you to the end, every single time.
On a high level, this project, the Intelligent Water Management System project (or simply IWMS), is a three-year contracted project for World Vision through my school. The basic end goal of the project is to create a web application that receives data from water pumps in Africa and allows it to be displayed and worked with in a sensible fashion. I could definitely go into more details, but that is not my purpose for today.
My class and my major's capstone course (which I will be taking next spring) started working on the IWMS project in February and are to have a primitive version of the application working by the end of the semester this May. Two Saturdays ago until the following Tuesday, I personally put in somewhere between 10-20 hours on a database-related issue for the application. Needless to say, it was a very tiring few days. In the end, the issue was resolved and other tasks were subsequently accomplished. However, the road to the end of the problem was very discouraging.
That Saturday night/Sunday morning and Sunday night/Monday morning (each night/early morning ending at about 1:30am) felt like absolute wastes of time and that I was getting nowhere. In retrospect, the 5-6 hours spent across those two days did result in a little bit of progress, but it was not until I decided to get help the following Monday afternoon from my professor that things turned around for the better. After visiting my professor, we worked out a solution in about 20 minutes that I was trying to accomplish for the previous 5-6 hours. While this was indeed a huge relief, I was a little disappointed in the seemingly unnecessary extra amount of time I put into this task.
Later that week, a great friend of mine (who was my freshman roommate, is my current RA, and will be one of my future apartment-mates next year) was talking about how he is seeing God move in regards to his duties as the Student Body Chaplain next year. He said something that gave me a fresh perspective on life: "Faith makes life possible, not easy." While my situation was not directly a faith-based battle, I earnestly believe that the entirety of it all demonstrates faith in the Christian life rather well. I struggled for a relatively long time on a particular issue, but it was not until I surrendered to the reception of help that I ultimately achieved victory. The end goal that I was trying to accomplish was indeed possible, but it was definitely not easy. However, it seemed impossible until I reached for something beyond my own strength and abilities.
In our daily life, we will face many difficult situations. As believers and followers of Christ, we have the opportunity to put our faith in a God who never fails, who will never leave us or forsake us, and who is always looking out for us. In the midst of our difficulties, we need to remember to have faith in Him who makes our life possible. Faith will not necessarily make our circumstances easier, but we can rest in God's omnipotence and omniscience and know that He will make our lives possible and that He will lead us through it all.
God cares about every detail of our lives (Luke 12:7); no matter what kind of a situation you face, bring it to God and have faith that He will lead you through the mess. He is faithful and true, and He will never let you down. Time spans may differ, but God will ultimately guide you to the end, every single time.
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