EPTIt's been awhile since I've been on TeamLiquid lurking or what have you, but I recently feel that I need to start making some changes in my life. This includes going back to some of my old passions, one of which being Starcraft, and it also includes writing more, to improve my ability to communicate. Hence here I am!
I have not ever been very active in the community, but starting now is better than never so here it goes. To clear up the suspense from my last blog, I am now enrolled in graduate school in Aerospace Engineering, which has been amazing. Although there are the stressful and trying periods, and times where I need to convince myself it was the right decision, the amount you learn and the insanely smart people you meet is worth it. For anyone thinking about going to graduate school after undergraduate, I ask yourself if you've found the field that you want to work in, and then ask yourself what it takes to do the kind of work that you want to do. After that, and only after that should you make the plunge. Graduate school isn't for everyone, but anyone can do well if they have a passion for the material.
Aside from convincing myself why I need to still be in school, I wanted to have a medium to share my writing both for practice and to get feedback. I recently read an article talking about how STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) should instead become STEAM, where the A stands for Arts. This was an interesting concept for me because of two reasons. The first was ever since I entered college, I stopped practicing writing, grammar, and many other key written communication skills that lose focus while in an engineering school. The second was the fact that I see the lack of these skills biting people in the ass, including myself. I that it was a skill that I was lacking in, but I had never considered trying to improve it. Echoing my thoughts: "Why should I? Isn't the whole point of engineering to design something so incredible, the work speaks for itself? If my work is good enough, I shouldn't need to be able to explain to others, it's clear!". Writing those thoughts out really makes me see how arrogant that sounds, and hence my goal is to try to post a blog at least once a week, about anything really, but probably about graduate school.
In other news I had some other thoughts about the whole student-advisor relationship. Long story short my advisor is relatively new, only become a professor about 2 and a half years ago, and I joined his a year ago. I feel that much of graduate school is about self motivation, and being notoriously awful at that I struggled to push past the expectations that he set for me, and even those that I set for myself. Fast forward a year and here I am (out of state from my university) working on my first conference paper to submit. While I understand I shouldn't rely on him, I find it frustrating that the time he spends reviewing on the paper with me less than 15 minutes, never mind the fact that we are talking over Skype over 5 hours past the time we had agreed upon the week before. In his defense he also has 7 other students (the majority of us first years) and we are all applying to the same conference. Also, I am the only one who actively sought out a summer internship hence I am out of town, this makes it harder for us to collaborate (I found a good opportunity that aligns with my research, and had no reason to stay in town aside from working on my research). I suppose the takeaway is to aim to become more independent from my advisor by focusing on my research and letting him advise, not lead. It's a different concept that what I pictured graduate school being like, but I believe its best to not let myself get hung up on the disappointments on my situation, but to press forward and make the best with what I have.
Alright, I think its time to close the book on this one. Any thoughts are appreciated, especially any of you that have been in a similar situation from work, school, or life. Feel free to PM if you'd like to talk or ask anything.
Thanks for reading!
TL:DR- Grad school is hard but fun, writing is an important skill at life, learning to work closely with someone can be difficult.
I loved grad school (mathematics education); just make sure your advisor is good at mentoring you! 
