Haskell Triumph!

I’m really excited

• I was officially offered a Haskell internship for next summer! I am super stoked. I can’t believe I told my GSoC mentors before I wrote my parents haha! They were both very excited for me! I’m meeting Chris at ICFP next week, too! :D

It’s been a looong day!

• Okay, let’s rewind. I was up at 2 this morning because I was worried about not getting up on time for my GRE exam. I sat it, got a good score, but was so wiped out that instead of going back to work, I decided to go home. I was so pumped when I read up on my score (I had no idea lol because I honestly didn’t study and even know the format of the exam ) that I immediately booked another exam, because I’m really close to getting a score that is competitive enough for any school. Right now, I should be able to get into any of the ones I have chosen, but my score had me thinking today “what if…”. If I did a little bit better, I might have my pick. That motivated me, even though I’m really interested in just a handful.

• But I’m going to try again in October because I’m up for the challenge! There were a lot of my peers there doing dental exams or MCATs. I met one other GRE student. Everyone was really nice and I like that testing centre. They even remind you the day before that you’re sitting the exam and let you sit a bit early. I also am finishing up my Statement of purpose and will get on sending transcripts. I currently have four recommedation resources who have all agreed that they will help me, too.

• So I was wiped out! I knocked out shortly after a final phone call, and woke up a few hours later to check up on my class assignment online (I have class twice a week, but am only required to be physically there on one day). I checked my email and saw the offer. I can’t say I’ve hyperventilated a lot in my life, but this was one of those times! I was in shock. Tears just started streaming down my face, while I was hyperventilating. I’m going to work really, really hard and continue learning and building things in Haskell. I can’t believe how far this journey has taken me and I’m so thankful. The people at this company have been so supportive of me from my first interaction and it really sounds like they will do as much as they can to help support my growth, and that has made me so happy. So I’m going to do my part and put in the work.

Things to do

• I have one more lab assignment to do, having completed another for class today (got full marks for that one!) and a coding thing to do. I also got into the app building project where we build an app in a team for a charity. It’s for five Saturdays starting in mid-October to mid-November. I’m not sure who else is in my group, but I want to use it as an opportunity to supplement my Haskell learning and get into things like building apps in Haskell and understanding how that all works.
• I also made progress on my parser, but I haven’t yet put my code in a repo. I had been working on it the past week, while continuing to study Hbook.

At work

• I emailed one of the senior devs (a friend who has encouraged me) and he said “upward and onward”. It’s so nice of him! :D I’ve had people scoff at me when I’ve told them I like Haskell, but from the beginning he’s been encouraging, and I respect that greatly. He has never discouraged me or told me that I’ll never find a path with that language or anything. In fact, he has told a lot of people about me and always asks people on his team if they know me haha. It’s nice to have those people in my life, and I’m going to continue to use the resources I have to try to become the best developer and Haskeller I can!

And that’s it!