A Reflection of My Academic and Personal Career

Pre-College
I was one of the students in high school who was extremely ordinary – there was very little that
separated me from other students, and I really didn’t do anything to change that. My grades
were average, hovering around a low 3.0 GPA each semester, and I did not participate in any
extracurriculars or student clubs. Sometimes it would even dip below a 3.0 during my senior
year, where I spent a lot of time in my electives sleeping. In general, I was very demotivated and
definitely did not care enough about my academics.
After graduating high school, my SAT scores and high school GPA were not enough to get into
my desired school – Virginia Tech. I was disappointed but not too surprised, so I had to choose
between accepting admission to ODU or joining the waitlist for VCU, the other two schools I
applied for. I ended up accepting ODU, and I was determined to turn my attitude towards school
around. I wanted to be extremely involved and active in student organizations, classes, and
anything else I could think of.

Freshman Year
I was considering commuting to save money, but in order to help achieve my goal of becoming
more active and involved, I opted to live on campus instead. This ended up working out,
especially due to the lower cost of ODU’s tuition and room and board compared to other
schools. I was late on choosing housing assignments and I greatly desired a freshman only
dorm building, so I ended up being put into the last opening for the building, cramped into a
small dorm room with two other boys. Luckily, we got along and this boosted my confidence for
making friends with other students. I also had great luck with joining the Asian Pacific American
Student Union (APASU) and all of the friends I made there greatly helped fuel my participation
in my classes, especially with more discussion oriented classes such as my Political Science
and English classes.
With my seemingly improved motivation and social skills, my grades went up as well. I felt that I
was genuinely learning more and interested in the content in front of me, and I was very proud
of myself for that. I always knew my academic performance (or lack of) was directly correlated
to enthusiasm and motivation, and my first year was a great representation of that. I had a great
relationship with my roommates, peers, and school in general.

COVID-19, Online Schooling, and Choosing a Major
Towards the end of the spring semester of my freshman year, COVID-19 became a worldwide
pandemic and ODU was forced to send all students living on campus home and start
transforming in-person classes to online classes. Once I started online school, I was
disappointed and feared I would go back to my old ways. However, that actually wasn’t the case – my grades actually went up even further due to the extra free time that I had and my remaining
burst of motivation from in-person schooling. I was happy with my academic performance, but I
genuinely missed my friends and campus life, and there was always the underlying fear of me
regressing back into my past self.
While I was still in-person, I also was struggling to decide which major I wanted to do, as I did
not and still don’t really 100% know what I want to commit to for the foreseeable future. I have
always been interested in technology and computers and had a natural attraction towards
computer science. However, I was always hesitant to actually commit to it due to my subpar
math skills. I recalled having a conversation with a friend about the topic of choosing a major,
and he suggested cybersecurity. He, a cybersecurity major himself, said he chose cybersecurity
because it was similar to computer science, but without all of the math required.
I am still not completely sure if that was said in a joking manner, but that genuinely inspired my
future choices. As my sophomore year was ending, I was forced to declare a major and went
with cybersecurity. I’ve been mostly satisfied with that choice up to now, but I still have a
looming feeling that it really isn’t what I want to be invested into for the rest of my life. However, I
at least know that the cybersecurity field is constantly expanding and it is rather easy to find a
good and stable job within that field, granted the right amount of effort is put in. Landing a good
position is also extremely reliant on certifications, something I am currently studying for and
hopefully am able to achieve either right before I graduate or shortly after.

Junior Year, Work Experience, and Internships
As I research more about cybersecurity and my future in general, I realize an internship would
be invaluable on my resume. An internship is also required in order to complete a cybersecurity
major. It can be substituted for two other classes, but at this point, I really wanted the hands on
experience and was somewhat tired of sitting at home and doing even more online school. I
looked more into it, and eventually concluded that an internship would be something I wanted to
do in my senior year; I felt that prioritizing finishing up the more difficult classes in my major
before seeking out an internship would be the least mentally tolling on me.
I still wanted something to use up some of my free time while making money. My ideal scenario
would be that I find a part time job that can at least be somewhat applicable to my future career.
Whether it would’ve been good networking opportunities or experience with cybersecurity in any
way I could put on my resume, I was extremely desperate. My plans never ended up coming
into fruition, and I settled for a Retail Sales Associate Position at Best Buy, where I at least was
satisfied with earning $15/hour.
My manager often put me into 40 hour weeks, when I had clearly outlined before that I was a full
time student and would do 30 hours per week only if needed. I was extremely hesitant to quit
despite them not listening to my complaints due to my parents constantly telling me that it would
make a bad impression of me. I was too tired and unmotivated to do any school work after my
daily shifts, leaving all of the work to be done on the weekend. This was all happening during
the fall semester of my junior year, and despite the constant overwork, I still managed to get everything in on time, maintaining my good GPA. However, I was extremely stressed out and
ended up quitting after five months. I spent the entirety of my fall semester working full time and
doing full time school, something I certainly do not want to do again.
Coming into the spring semester, I was unemployed again, and after going through a difficult
phase, I was actually satisfied with just doing school for the time being. Again, I maintained my
good grades and appreciated the free time that I had. I was still focused on improving my
chances of a successful career and was extremely interested in learning a marketable skill,
particularly coding. Being the natural procrastinator I am, I’ve yet to actually capitalize on that
interest. I’ve also considered learning a new language, but again, the procrastinator in me
overpowers everything that I do.

Senior Year to Present
As summer break was ending, I wanted to start working again and luckily was able to land a
front desk receptionist job for Riverside, which is what I am currently doing. I was able to
negotiate part time hours as I do school, and I am even able to sneak in some homework on the
side while I’m working. Working here has even opened up some avenues to join the Riverside
IT department, which while is not something I am particularly 100% interested in, it’s something I
can at the very least look at with recommendations from within the company as well. Being able
to interact with coworkers I enjoy being around, make money, and still have time for school work
without being stressed out is something that reminds me of how I was initially feeling during my
freshman year.
At this point, I had finished nearly all of my cybersecurity credits aside from the mandatory
internship, and I still had a semester’s worth of credits required that I didn’t know what to do for.
After my time and experience in cybersecurity classes, I decided I was most interested in
cybercrime and decided to finish up a minor in that, which is what I am currently doing. As I am
finishing these classes, sometimes I actually express regret for is pursuing a cybersecurity
major; the material I’ve learned from my cybercrime, digital forensics, and cyberlaw classes call
out to me much more than any of the cybersecurity material I have learned in the past few
years. After this semester, the only thing left required for me to graduate will be the internship
and one leftover class I will do alongside that. If everything goes as expected, then I should
graduate this spring.

Reflection
The transition from high school to college was the most beneficial thing that could have
happened in my life so far. I recognized I wasn’t putting in enough effort in high school, and
decided to change that and was ultimately much more successful. My grades properly reflected
that, and as my college years go by, I am learning more about what I need to do to prepare
myself for the future. While it may be obvious from a glance, something I really can take away
from my time here at ODU is that motivation is the key to everything. Simply stepping out of
your comfort zone and not being afraid to try unfamiliar things grants so many more
opportunities for academic success, social success, and overall growth. Doing things I was originally hesitant to try before essentially gave me a massive grade and the confidence boost
that I desperately needed. Now, I can realistically see what I could be doing for a bit, but a big
thing that is bothering me in the back of my head is that I am not really pursuing something I am
100% passionate about. Again, that is something I think I may be able to eventually solve by
putting myself into new scenarios until I can finally ‘discover’ myself.