graduation

5/18/25

Words: 941

closing out the chapter

here i am, at the end of my journey in education, and i can’t even drink to celebrate. may 17th, 2025 (yesterday as i’m writing this) i walked in my commencement ceremony and received* my bachelor’s degree in computer science. *i have a few classes to clean up this summer but i’m chilling tbh.

as i turn the page on this chapter of my life, it’s hard not to reflect on where i am and how i got here. this post will serve as a brief glimpse into my history and a little dumping of my thoughts

00: education

while i dont remember a lot of my younger years, i can say my college education felt a lot more useful than anything that came before it. but, even then, i think a majority of the classes didn’t do much more for me than present me with concepts that i could explore in depth on my own time. i don’t think there’s anything i learned or accomplished there that i couldn’t have easily dove into alone without paying $30k/yr. there were a few classes, between the professors and the course content, that i do feel were worth my time and overall pleasant. chronogically, here are some of my favorites i had:

• Discrete Mathematics
  • honestly? just a really damn fun class to take. my professor was super fun and made it enjoyable to explore logic and set theory and such, super fun.
• Computer Organization and Assmebly
  • holy shit. low-level exploration AND an amazing professor? honestly would take this class again. learned mips assembly, learned circuits and even made a fully working mips cpu from the ground up, and touched on C. incredible experience.
• Intro to Film Studies
  • curveball here. highkey really cool to learn how to put the thoughts i have about media into better words, which is something i’ve always struggled with. it was amazing to be able to share and discuss my thoughts about films in ways i never really got to before.

ok that list was shorter than i would have hoped ! but alas education is education. the next section is gonna be soooooo sick trust me. but, i came into college with 45 credits, and finished in 4 semesters (and a summer term), expedited a little bit by the iowa legislature deciding trans people dont get civil rights anymore on a thursday afternoon.

01: social life

so like. i barely had a social life for most of high school, and it didn’t get much better in college. i mostly surrounded myself with my peers in Rainbow Union (my school’s club primarily for queer people), and also had a couple friends elsewhere, mainly from my hall in my first year (will touch on this in a sec) and in a frat oddly enough.

when i went to school my first year, i was set to go into the gender inclusive housing at the dorms, which was looking to be mostly other trans people. for the most part? this was amazing. getting to meet other trans people and have friends near me physically was one of the best things that happened to me that year. it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though, without going into too much detail, every tree has bad apples and sometimes you trust the right person and let your guard down. thankfully the rest of my apples had my back so that didnt end up derailing my life as much as it could have. however, it definitely solidified the fact that my online presence was where i’d live my best life, at least for now.

my second year wasn’t much better, but better it was. in a wonderful coincidence, i met tess, one of my neighbors in the second year’s gender inclusive housing, when they asked if anyone had batteries they could steal. they were someone i could trust and care about, someone who would actually invite me to things and WANT me places, and that helped me a ton. i frankly have tess to thank for dragging me out of one of my deepest mental health pits ive ever been in. when the second semester rolled around though, tess had some life circumstances that meant they weren’t coming back for the second semester. my social struggles came back, and for better or worse, i spent more time than ever in my room on discord calls. this last semester i met some of the coolest people ever, and i dove a bit into music production (get owned, side quest 01). in march over my spring break i got the chance to go to england and visit my freaking WIFE and it was one of the best experiences ive ever had, solidifying how badly i need someone to love irl, and it gave me a goal for the future.

02: the future

well… what comes next for me? first of all i have to finish up a couple classes this summer, but im hoping to find work, and if things can go well for me maybe i can get out of this country. that apartment in england surrounded by people who care about me was practically heaven, and maybe a heaven that’s achievable. a lot of things are uncertain for me right now, but im incredibly motivated and have so much time ahead of me to figure this shit out. i know for real that life can be good and im excited to see what the world has in store for me when i get a chance to catch its kind side