no stress

you know what? there should really be nothing stressing me out in life right now. i have it pretty easy. my job is boring sure but i dont take it home with me and its only to help pay the bills while i'm still a lower-division undergrad. when i start working as an engineer for a company that wants to develop the best product possible and i have decisions to make and proposals to write then maybe some stress might be understandable but right now i have none of that.

this summer i had to take a chemistry course, had to make it through labs that lasted not much longer than 30 minutes each, and had to take straightforward exams where the problem solving expected of me wasnt much beyond what would be expected of a high school student. i also have to build simple digital circuits where the hardest part is just learning how to use all of the complicated and expensive equipment to measure how the circuit performs. when i actually have to think about doing something or solving some problem that no one has ever solved before, maybe then do i have some justification for being stressed out.

i talked to the undergrad advisor today in the EE department since i've just been admitted and he said that i should seriously consider just going for a masters degree because it wouldnt take that long and i'd learn a lot more and be much more marketable to the companies i want to work for when i'm finally finished studying. i was thinking about myself as a masters level student and i would have to write a thesis if i wanted to get my masters of science in electrical engineering. and writing a thesis is something that you actually have to think about and come up with more or less on your own.

my advisor took a look at my transcript and joked "maybe this is all too easy for you" because i've been getting basically straight A's for the past two years. and i said "yeah maybe so far". the coursework is getting slightly more difficult but seriously i think in a way, he is right. there is no reason i shouldnt be getting straight A's in undergraduate coursework. even though many of the concepts are challenging, the work that is required is not about being creative or being able to express new ideas, its just about giving back on exams and lab reports what has been taught to you in a lecture or a textbook. that is undergraduate work. thats not graduate work or professional work. that is only a minor portion of what successful people do. yes, you have to understand concepts or else there would be no need for a bachelors degree but you have to be able to design projects independently and see them through to a finish and ideally come up with something that no one has or even could have done. and i think that could be stressful.