Another year older

First of all, thank you to everyone who sent me birthday cards and wishes. It means a lot to me to have friends who care. Overall, my birthday was quite happy, though with bitersweet undertones. I had a delicious dinner and desert at Il Fornaio, courtesy of David, a movie with friends, and cards and phone calls throughout the day. I have to thank my awesome roomate, semer, for outdoing herself to make sure I had a great day.  Here are some pictures she took of her handiwork.  She’s the best!

Second, I just got offered the RCC position in Kimball next year, which was my first choice dorm.  I’m really happy that this worked out, because Kimball is a really fun dorm to live in and I’m hoping that many of my friends will end up there or in nearby dorms.

I did just realize, however, that between SRC and staff training, I’m going to have almost no time off this summer.  Normally this would be a bit of a bummer but not the end of the world.  This year I’m worried that I may have made a bad choice about doing summer research.  I’ve had some pretty rough times these past two quarters, and it has been suggested to me many times that I should take some time off.  I never actually manage to take time off, however – there’s always a reason to stay just one more quarter.  This quarter, for instance, I figured I could handle another 10 weeks (especially since so many people I know are graduating in June) and then recover during the summer.  But somehow I wasn’t thinking about the fact that doing a “project” during the summer means another 10 weeks of full time work, which is hardly a break.  It has been brought to my attention that I could decide not to do the summer project, but I am resistant to that idea because I’d feel so unreliable and would be leaving someone hanging.  At the same time, it might just be more important to take care of my (mental and physical) health at the cost of a good summer opportunity and possibly losing someone’s respect (by backing out).  I really don’t know what I should do….

Stick with summer plans
Pros
: improve programming/technical skills, work on an interesting project, make connections in CS department, get research experience, see Stanford people during the summer, make money
Cons: full time work for almost the whole summer, very little break time over summer, possibly wear/stress self out, can’t contribute money to IRA

Back out of summer research project
Pros: time to relax, re-energize, easier to deal with health and emotional concerns, spend more time with my sister, see friends from high school, get stuff done at home
Cons: may be hard to find another job, being at home all summer could make me crazy, let down/inconvenience the people I’m working with

Any thoughts?

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