Do Over

At lunch today, chatting with a friend, we talked about what we would do over in our lives. My list is quite small actually.

First, instead of playing in the band in junior high school, I would have taken German. I spent 7th through 9th grade (half of 9th actually) in Frankfurt, Germany (West Germany at the time) at an American junior high school, and it would have been a great opportunity to learn the language. Instead, I used my electives to play in the band. It was fun, but it isn't something I do anymore. My high school taught up to five years of German, so it would have been perfect: two years in junior high, three more in high school. I don't know if I would have continued in college, but anything would have been useful.

The other thing I would have done differently is entered graduate school in computer science directly. I was an electrical engineering undergrad, and completed my degree in four years. Then I went into grad school in the same field and spent two years as a full time grad student, one year as a part time grad student, and then I switched to computer science and got my Master's in another year and a half. So that wasn't very efficient, now was it! I did all the coursework for my M.S.E.E. but didn't do the thesis. I want to emphasize: that doesn't mean I was "close" to the E.E. Master's - far from it as any grad student will tell you.

That change would possibly have made a profound difference in my life, however. I would have graduated with the C.S. Master's in 1992 instead of 1995, might have worked somewhere else instead of Compaq, might not have met one of my best friends Bev, may not have wound up moving to Seattle, and so forth. So on the whole I'm not sure I'd be better off making that change.