I grew up in a small suburb in the east corner of Anaheim in Southern California (called Anaheim Hills—it’s about twenty minutes from Disneyland. I just applied to Cal to apply, but never really intended on coming here. However, it came down to a choice between Cal and UCLA. When I visited campus, something just clicked for me, and I knew I had to come here.
In high school, I wanted to be a lawyer and consistently resisted learning programming, despite relentless efforts by my father and Hour of Code. Then came CS10. The enthusiasm of the course staff rubbed off on me, and since then I’ve programmed in Snap!, Python, and Bash. I’ll be learning Java over the course of this semester.
In my free time, I enjoy playing basketball and making conversation with people. You’ll also find me reading articles and watching videos about climate change. Occasionally, I will spend time reflecting on my life and the lives of those close to me, recording my thoughts in various journals. I’m also considering starting to meditate this semester.
I can sing in Arabic. Kind of. I can also trim beards quite well (to be fair, I’ve never tried on anyone else’s).
I won a sermon recitation competition once, and while it was definitely one of the most memorable things I’ve done, it isn’t the most remarkable thing that I have experienced. That honor must go to when I was doing box jumps, jumped off the box, and lacerated my head on the fenced ceiling. I didn’t feel any pain, and didn’t realize I was injured until I wiped my head and saw my hand covered in blood. There’s a great picture of me smiling after the injury.
Hmm, well I’ll be TAing for CS 10, so there’s that. I’ll also be taking CS 61B, Data 8, Math 110, and Philosophy 3 (Nature of Mind—should be interesting, right?). Other than that, I’ll probably just sit around and contemplate life while drinking honey (yes, I have honey by itself, and don’t hate on it until you try it).