Hello world! This is my first post on Medium. I thought it would be fitting to publish my first post entering a new year. Before I begin pouring out my thoughts on this platform, allow me to introduce myself.
A brief profile
My name is Emily Vu, and I am a 19 year old female Asian-American. I am currently a second year physics major, with interests in entrepreneurship, data science, and art.
A bit of a backstory
I grew up in a small town. I was homeschooled in high school. Throughout those four years, I felt a void in not having a normal high school experience. To fill this void, I turned towards creative expression. I became obsessed with photography, and spent most of my free time photographing my friends and editing photos. I eventually transitioned into filmmaking, where I would spend even more hours filming, editing, and uploading films onto Youtube. My life in high school revolved around these two things. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in college or in life, but I knew it had to be something that involved creativity or innovation.
When I entered college, my life changed completely. I came in as an enthusiastic, naive student with an idea and an entrepreneurial spirit. In my freshman year, I competed in a business competition at my school called the “New Venture Competition”, and won first place for my track (Consumer Products). I was the youngest person ever to win the competition, taking home $10,000 for my startup. I was 18 at the time.
However, my grades suffered as I struggled to balance school, work, and my startup. Towards the end of my freshman year, I realized that I had spread myself too thin. Along with juggling all of these things, I was majoring in physics, a major that requires a lot of time (and endless, endless, practice problems). I didn’t know how to study, and I spent a majority of my first year just learning how to learn. This was something that I regret not doing in high school: perfecting the ability to study efficiently.
In my sophomore year, I vowed that I would dedicate more time to my studies. My focus shifted away from my startup, and every time I went back to work on it, I felt burnt out. By the end of my first quarter of sophomore year, I finally brought my grades up, but my entrepreneurship spirit had dwindled. At this point, I was dealing with a slight quarter-life crisis (as most college students do). What am I going to do with a physics major? How do I get better grades when I’m competing against a class of 90% males, most of whom are much smarter than me? Why aren’t I as good as my other peers, who are getting internships at Google and Facebook and…
These thoughts frequently clouded my mind, and I was beginning to understand the harsh reality that I couldn’t just “follow my dreams” and expect success to come my way. While at heart, I knew my passion laid in entrepreneurship, I realized that in order to truly follow my dreams, I first needed to get into a position that would provide me the right opportunities and environment to pursue them. A broke, college student is not the most ideal set up for entrepreneurship (although it does make a good story!)
The present day
Over winter break, I came across a data science internship at Airbnb. As hard as it sounds, I was determined to get this internship. I saw that the qualifications included a BS in physics. I was intrigued about using machine learning and AI in data analysis. I was thrilled by the thought of working at a startup as successful at Airbnb. In the back of my mind, maybe I wanted to take a break from entrepreneurship. Maybe I felt that it was time for me to sit down and learn a hard skill. In any case, I knew that this was something I needed to work towards. Even if I don’t get this internship, I would learn a lot in my journey of learning about data science.
Now, I’m here. As I find myself shifting from one passion to another, I realize that it’s perfectly okay to explore new paths. I used to constantly put myself down for not being able to stick with one passion. As I put entrepreneurship on hold, I hope that my journey in data science will allow me to discover new things about myself, and learn new skills I never thought I’d be capable of. This year, I want to challenge myself to be able learn anything I put my mind to. And I challenge you, reader, to do the same!
That concludes my first post on Medium. I am aiming to write a post on Medium at least once a month, but we’ll see how that goes. Thanks for reading!
