Path of the Wastrel

So I decided to follow up on my infa­mous “Oh the human­i­ties” letter to my acad­e­mic advi­sor:

Hi again,

It’s Xo once again, the ever-ador­ing fan of the acad­e­mic advise­ment office at the Depart­ment of Elec­tri­cal and Computer Engi­neer­ing. I’d just like to update you on my summer as it has been so far since I received your fantas­tic insight into the only peda­gog­i­cal path appro­pri­ate to me at this point in my life.

So far, I have taken the path of the wastrel. These past months have seen me exper­i­ment with vari­ous ille­gal substances and partic­i­pate in violent (though hardly conse­quen­tial, in my humble opin­ion) street crime, all while I gamble away my personal assets.

In antic­i­pa­tion of my next year of valu­able instruc­tion, espe­cially in the human­i­ties (oh them!), I’ve taken on cutting my body as an extracur­ric­u­lar. I find that it is an extremely intense form of expres­sion. Cutting enthu­si­asts have advised me that I am a “natural” and that I should enter the pros—perhaps even­tu­ally compete in the World Cham­pi­onships.

I have shrugged off warn­ings from friends and family about my declin­ing state of health and squalor­ous living condi­tions. I see no reason in their concern. After all, they’re the ones who suggested that I should have a say in the choice of course­work at univer­sity and that I should be free to pursue my educa­tion at a level comfort­able for me. Ha! They were demon­strated to be wrong by your highly logi­cal and consid­er­ate coun­sel­ing; who are they to now dissuade me from a path that will lead to assured ruin among the outcasts of soci­ety?

Yours,
Xo Wang

Alright, so I haven’t actu­ally been doing of the above mentioned, but instead trying to hold a job. The Office of Profes­sional Devel­op­ment, or rather the whole of Geor­gia Tech, has been excep­tion­ally unhelp­ful towards that end.

Though they are often lauded for their great co-op & intern­ship programs, GT basi­cally with­holds oppor­tu­ni­ties from fresh­men. Their website isn’t open to anyone below a certain number of credit-hours and the staff are just unhelp­ful. What, are you afraid your students might catch up to those at better schools? God forbid any of us should get a head start on this profes­sional devel­op­ment thing.

I started a bit at a hedge fund, decided finance was not for me, and switched into a reward­ing intern­ship at Barnes & Noble, thanks in great part to a wonder­ful friend and mentor. Devel­op­ing appli­ca­tions is pretty nice.

As an aside, I highly recom­mend the sand­wiches from Financier Patis­serie and burg­ers from Jimbo’s, if you’re ever around that corner in Midtown East. They’re good stuff.