Keeping It Simple¶
It should come as no surprise to anyone that writing about oneself is a conspicuously difficult thing to do no matter how facile it may seem on surface. Yet by a stroke of (incredibly good) luck here I am, doing a self-introduction online despite my unreasonable aversion to being perceived, as ludicrous as that may sound.
There are many things, however, that I could say about myself. I am easily distracted, largely indecisive and interested in pursuing too many varied things. I have a propensity to vacillate between having an outburst of inititative and doing nothing at all. I prefer cold weather to hot and I really hope to be able to play Paganini’s Caprices on the violin one day. I do not understand a thing about web development and am endlessly fascinated (but woefully underinformed) by artificial intelligence and its applications. I love learning languages and learning about languages, and I am perpetually trying to understand my relative position and privilege in the world. I would like to read more history, politics and visit every corner of the world, and feel happy to just be - without having to attach the worth of my life to what I accomplish or don’t accomplish.
It is probably too incoherent to be interesting to anyone reading it, but it’s hard to be coherent when all my words are rusty after a year of isolation and general listlessness. Which brings me to my present state of fearful hope mixed with gratitude to be moving towards something wonderful.
I have been very fortunate to be selected as an Outreachy intern in this (summer ‘21) cohort with PyMC3, and have been involved with improving their example notebooks and adding some new ones to make life easier for everyone getting started with it. It’s daunting for sure, to be actually getting what I want and suddenly having expectations thrust upon me not just by others but by my own self, but after the lustreless, colorless, despondent year that we have all had over the past year, I am nothing short of grateful to be feeling this way - hopeful and excited.
I graduated last year amidst the world’s lockdown with little fanfare and an ever growing sense of reclusiveness, which is quite different from my usual personality. But I didn’t think too hard about it, and with it came a lack of motivation to do anything useful. It takes stimulus to step out of a headspace like that, which has been surely hard to come by for everyone. Little steps, small vials of effort together have brought me to my current situation, where I am not just working (hard, if I may say so) but also feeling motivated and contributing to a wonderful organization. I am thankful to my amazing mentor Oriol Abril Pla who’s been very supportive, patient and generous with his time and knowledge and to Outreachy for giving me this opportunity. I am looking forward to a great period learning, growing and coming out of it with more self-assurance.
Wish me luck!