and Words
I don’t want to hear about it anymore
It’s a shame I’ve got to live without you anymore
There’s a fire in my heart
A pounding in my brain, it’s driving me crazy
We don’t need to talk about it anymore
Yesterday’s just a memory
Can we close the door?
I just made one mistake
I didn’t know what to say when you called me baby
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
I tumbled through my fifth year in engineering school at the University of Miami. To be completely honest, I encountered obstacles with my senior project and took a little more time. Though with that extra year, I took the initiative to pick up a second major of computer science, and a minor in psychology. On that last year, however, I coasted compared to preceding years. Specifically, I needed fewer credits per semester to graduate.
The University of Miami had one rate for full-time tuition (12-18 credits), thus the price for tuition was effectively the same for four classes versus six classes. I regularly packed my semesters with 16-17 credits to maximize my tuition money, but this also meant that I would regularly take one or two more classes than my classmates. Hence, I kept a very full schedule and worked three days most weekends.
However, choosing to pack my schedule in this way had its own set of consequences. It was easier to ace a class when we had enough time to dedicate to it. Getting four A’s and one B (versus just four A’s) meant that I could get 25% more classes, but it also meant that my GPA would be 3.8 instead of 4.0. The more demanding the semester, the more my GPA suffered, but I refused to drop a class.
On that last year, I only needed a handful of classes to satisfy my graduation requirements. Classes-wise, I cruised over the figurative finish line; that was easy. However, I pivoted to ‘what to do next’.
On that final year, I kept an off-campus apartment with a roommate. That roommate was my younger sister; it made sense. She too was scheduled to graduate, though as a mechanical engineer. It was far enough from the school that the rent was reasonable and so that we could mentally disengage from our schoolwork on the ride home. It was close enough so that the commute was manageable. In some ways, sharing an apartment with her might’ve seemed unusual, but I didn’t think about it too much.
Our apartment was right off Sunset Drive if memory serves. We lived a short distance from a McDonald’s where we’d often get breakfast. They sold plain sausage biscuits for 79ยข. This was our most frequent order since we would not pay for luxuries like egg, cheese, or beverage. We’d pick these up through the drive-through window and eat them on the way to school. It was our routine.
As I spent less time attending classes due to my ‘conventional’ 12 credit semester, I picked up more shifts at work. I waited tables at a nearby restaurant, New Chinatown; it was a four-star rated restaurant. As I worked those additional shifts, I realized that if I absolutely had to, I could survive strictly by waiting on tables. For years, it was simply a way to cover student expenses. Though I’m only months away from graduation, this realization brought some relief.
I searched for the menu online for New Chinatown and found that it closed a number of years ago. It ran for over 30 years, which is no slouch. They had great food. I think I still have brightly colored red or green aprons with their faded logo from my years as a server. It greatly saddened me to find that they closed.
Interspersed with attending school and waiting on tables, I contemplated what I’d be doing next. I spent much of that time at the career placement office, thumbing through the list of companies scheduled to arrive. We’d pencil our names into half-hour interview slots, on a first come, first served basis. I participated in more of these than I can count. Unfortunately, many such interviewers only looked at one statistic, my GPA. While I had a respectable 3.0, it paled in comparison to my classmate’s 3.8+ GPA’s. Those conversations were cordial, but dismissive.
There were exceptions of course, Harris Semiconductors and Microsoft. Both interviewers bombarded me with technical questions, and I performed well in both of them and got callbacks. After trips to Seattle and Central Florida, I finally get an offer from Microsoft. It’s an amazing opportunity, but one that will take me far from my family and my home in Florida. I accept it.
As I wrapped up that final semester, I slogged through my classes. One such class was Machine Learning, a graduate level class that I truly enjoyed. After one class, my professor pulled me aside. He asked me if I planned to apply to graduate school, or specifically, he was looking for a graduate assistant and wondered if I was interested. I was surprised and humbled, but ultimately turned it down.
As for my sister? She was easily the best roommate that I had. Naturally, we grew up together and attended the same high school, a year apart. However, spending that final year with her was different. We got to know each other as adults instead of our dorky sibling. We ate pizza in our sparsely furnished apartment as we buried our noses in engineering textbooks. She got a computer during that year, an underpowered 386SX clone, which we used to get through some assignments. We ate that leftover pepperoni pizza the morning after, having left it out on the counter.
On some evenings, we’d blast music out of our second-floor apartment. We’d open the balcony door and play it onto the parking lot below. I rarely saw anyone drive by, though we could easily hear it from downstairs. This song ‘High Enough’ was among our favorites. We played it on repeat; I’m surprised that the laser didn’t burn a hole through the CD. Honestly, I’m surprised no one ever complained about the music.
As I left Florida in a hurry, she helped me arrange with the movers to pack my things and move them to Washington. I think we joked as to who got to keep the CD, and we left that open ended. Though as I unpacked my belongings post move, I see it there among my collection. Whenever I hear this song, I think of my kid sister and how truly awesome she is.
We graduated on the same day, in the same ceremony. We were the firsts in our family to graduate from college. She went on to get a master’s degree from Florida State University and now designs jet engines. My kid sister is literally a rocket scientist; she winces every time I say that.