I had gotten out of class a few minutes early when I saw the final email reminding students to apply for SEED. What the heck, I thought, I have some extra time right now. I opened my laptop and checked the deadline — I had twenty minutes to complete the application. Adrenaline suddenly rushing, I sat my butt down on a Wiess acaglider and started frantically typing.

A week later, I received an email to schedule an interview and soon after that, I was rolling into the OEDK on my longboard wearing a blouse, blazer, and beige Timberland boots (these suckers don’t ever leave my feet). As a normally anxious person, I was incredibly at ease — probably because I had done absolutely none of my usual interview research and preparation to psych myself out. My plan was to walk in, do my best, and walk out. Low stress, low pressure.

I didn’t start really thinking about SEED until I was accepted. Since then, though, I have compiled some personal/professional goals for my summer here in Houston:

 

1. Adulting

Currently, my goal is to spend all four undergraduate years here at Rice living on campus. My roommate and I both love our room in Will Rice Old Dorm and love the convenience of living on campus. I view SEED as my limited-time trial of Real Adulthood™: I live off campus in an apartment where I pay rent, have a 40+ hour workweek, cook my own meals, and do all the things Real Adults™ do (except pay taxes).

One week in and I think I’m doing somewhat okay: I’ve successfully fed myself and gotten to work on time. Other parts of my life are kind of a mess, though. But I’m learning through my little wins and little failures, and hopefully by the end of these seven weeks, I am a little more independent and confident in myself.

2. Engineering Immersion

I had an okay experience in ENGI 120. For a myriad of competing positive and negative experiences in the course, I came out feeling generally disappointed in my team, project, and self, but with a resounding desire to do better. Part of this was the academic semester structure of ENGI 120 — with other courses and exams to worry about, I felt that neither I nor my team actually had the ability or motivation to prioritize our project. Nothing I can do about it now, though, except learn from it.

Consequently, I think SEED is my chance to experience engineering design work as a priority. I still love problem-solving and building things, and want to give this whole ENGI 120 thing another chance. With nothing else significant to distract me this summer, I can pour all my energy and attention into a project. I think this format of engineering design will help me gain more momentum throughout the whole process to produce something I am legitimately proud of.

3. Playing Around (with appropriate supervision and safety measures, of course)

Thinking about the OEDK makes me stupidly giddy — the kind of stupid giddy I suppose normal people felt on Christmas morning as children. Unfortunately, unlike those small children on Christmas morning who have seemingly unlimited time to unwrap and play with all their toys, during the academic school year, I have stuff I need to get back to: classes, homework, studying, maybe catching up on sleep. There are so many machines and tools in the OEDK that I haven’t gotten around to using and so many little projects I have on a running list that only seems to get longer. Hopefully, this summer, I can try out some more machines and make a dent in that projects list with the help of some OEDK tools.

 

And now here I am. It’s June, and SEED has officially started.

We’ll see if I can make my goals happen.