2017: Year in Review

Is it “Year end Review” or “Year in Review” or both?

2017 was a year dedicated to making plans, having everything fall apart, and then scrambling to adapt to it. 2017 taught me to be spontaneous and always be ready for change.

I came out of 2016 feeling like hot shit, with an internship offer from Etsy. I was excited to live in New York for the summer and felt less stressed about the spring semester. I felt like I could finally focus on some hobbies without worrying about finding a job for the summer.

Here are some highlights from the spring of 2017:

• I finally got my braces off! After two years of looking like a dork, I could now look at myself in the mirror and.. not recognize my smile. A year later and I can’t imagine myself again with braces. This told me that if I wanted to take a risk and try a new style I should just do it because it’ll become the new normal soon enough.
• I began my career in hip-hop! I started off the new year meeting with my mentor, Cam Houser, to talk about my goals in life. After having been into hip-hop for a while, I told him I wanted to try my hand at rapping. In order to help me get started, he made me a deal. He had been wanting to start a video series himself and in order for us to both get past the barrier of starting, he said that if he didn’t finish his video series by a certain date, he would give me $500. Likewise, if I didn’t finish by that date I would owe him $500. The idea of the bet was to motivate us to do the things we wanted to do through the potential to lose money. The bet worked and I created 5 hip-hop songs with beats ripped of Youtube which I uploaded to SoundCloud to show him and then hid immediately afterwards because I felt embarrassed with my work. However this was only the start. I wrote more and more and eventually began producing my own beats because I felt the need to own all of my work. As I produced more I began writing less, because I felt drawn into this other side of music. Without making the bet with Cam, I might’ve always been too afraid to start.
• I led a 3 Day Startup event! This was my first time leading a 3 Day Startup event all by myself and it was stressful but extremely rewarding. Our organizing team interviewed 100+ applicants for the program, managed a $5,000 budget, and mentored participants to round off a crazy successful program. This event taught me that communication is key to a successful event and that calling people is 10x more effective than texting/messaging them.
• I held a TEDx interactive workshop! I was invited to come to a TEDxAustin event to talk about magic tricks. Magic tricks had been a huge hobby of mine and I was super excited to share some of the subtle things in magic that I had learned throughout the years. I focused my talk on the psychology behind magic tricks and focused on a method called Equivoque or sometimes known as Magician’s Choice. For the uninitiated, Equivocation is a verbal technique where a magician appears to give the audience a free choice, but frames questions in such a way that all choices lead to the same result. I used to use a form of this a lot when asking my brother to do chores. “Do you want to vacuum the floor or do the dishes?” Both answers lead to the same result of him doing a share of chores. Putting on this workshop allowed me to share interesting areas of magic that normally people don’t see on TV.
• I taught a lil meatball how to program! As a mentor in Code Orange, a group dedicated to making an impact on children through technical education, I visit a recreation center in Austin once a week and teach my mentee basic programming logic and ideas such as conditionals and loops. We worked through Code.org projects, created games in Scratch, and played computer games. Code Orange has been incredibly fun and rewarding and has become a staple in my week.
• I started dating my best friend Jessica! Because of her I’ve become a more understanding person and a more well rounded person. After dating her, I started to become more spontaneous and go on trips, try new restaurants, and meet new people. These things helped sparked my mindset of spending more money on experiences and less money on possessions. I’m excited that she’ll be traveling to Seattle with me next year!

Then May came around and my hot shot self began to fall apart. Etsy sent an email to me asking for a time to schedule a call. I thought to myself, “No one emails to schedule a call about something good,” and I was right. A few weeks earlier, Etsy had gone through some organizational changes and they were gutting their entire intern program. I was devastated. I got up from bed, took a lap around West Campus, called my dad and asked him what to do. He told me, “Leo, these things happen and there’s not anything you can do. Don’t worry about it, when one window closes another one will open.” I thought to myself, “Did he mean when one door closes another one will open?”

I got back to my apartment, opened my laptop, and immediately began applying for new positions. A few days went by with no results and I was beginning to feel more disheartened. “No company wants to hire me in May for a job that begins in June! Most companies must be done hiring interns for the year.”

Then, a tweet from another former Etsy intern caught my eye. She was looking for a new internship too and in the replies of one of her tweets was a Marc Hedlund offering to spread any Etsy intern’s resume to his tech industry network. I had tried everything, so on a whim I sent my resume to him for help.

The response from the tech community was immediate and overwhelming. Companies filled my inbox with potential interview times and the support from the community was amazing. I spent the next three weeks interviewing and doing whiteboard coding problems online before finally accepting a Software Development Engineer internship offer from Amazon. I was going to Seattle!

I fervently wrote up a thank you letter to Marc in which his reply was extremely gracious and I packed my bags.

Here are some highlights from the summer of 2017 in Seattle:

• I reconnected with old friends in Seattle! We hiked Rattlesnake Ledge and Lake Twentytwo together along with their adorable dog. Even though these are known as touristy hikes, remember to bring enough water because they’re more strenuous than they seem!
• I visited the Bay Area! I made an impromptu trip to San Francisco to visit my friends from UT working in the bay area this summer. We sat in a bathtub of ping pong balls, visited Lake Tahoe, and set up a tent in the backyard of an Airbnb.
• I drove to the North Cascades! I hiked up the Cascade Pass to Sahale Arm Trail at the North Cascades National Park, one of the best trails I’ve ever been on. This was the most rewarding and strenuous trail by far (around 13 miles) and required a lot of mental persistence to keep from turning around. Throughout the trail we got battered by flies, who seemed to have been agitated by the recent wildfire smoke blown in from Canada. My fear of creepy crawlies was forced to be overcome as hundreds of flies landed without fear onto my legs, arms, and neck. However, the view on the top of the mountain was amazing, and I got to enjoy a great sandwich at the top!
• Jessica visited me! Jessica planned a surprise visit to Seattle in July and we spent the time visiting Bainbridge Island, eating great seafood/sushi, hiking through Cape Disappointment, and exploring Pike’s Place. These things were so much fun that I’m excited to head back to Seattle next fall!
• My parents flew up to visit! My parents came to visit me in August and we hiked up the Burroughs Mountain Trail at Mount Rainier National Park and visited Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park. I was bummed to not try a longer day hike at Olympic, but the drive was so long from Seattle that it would’ve been an exhausting drive back.

As my time in Seattle came to an end I began to worry more and more about my intern project presentation. Over the summer I created a reverse proxy using Netty and AWS that could handle and throttle WebSocket traffic. My goal was to use WebSockets as a more efficient way to conduct Amazon traffic and prevent malicious attacks through WebSocket protocol, but I felt apprehensive about presenting my work to a room of senior developers. Would they ask questions that I didn’t know the answers to? Would they try to poke holes in my code? I refined my presentation with multiple practice runs and went into it.

A week later I received a full time offer from Amazon to return as a Software Development Engineer.

Here are some highlights from the fall of 2017:

• I went to my first Texas v. Oklahoma football game! The fans were incredible and our seats were amazing. The most hype game I’ve ever been to by far. We lost in the end but our team showed a tremendous amount of heart and effort. Let me round the year off with optimism, “Next year will be our year!”
• I celebrated with the Houston Astros! I made an impromptu decision to attend the Houston Astros World Series Championship parade with my roommate. Neither of us were die hard baseball fans before we jumped on the Houston Astros bandwagon. It was definitely way too crowded and I could barely see the parade but it was for the experience.
• I got lit on Bourbon Street! I planned a trip with friends to visit New Orleans and we had a crazy time on Bourbon Street. Fish bowls are not really worth the money but Hand Grenades are. Nothing beats a hot and fresh beignet with a café au lait in the morning at 2 am after a night out.
• I organized another 3 Day Startup event! I passed on the torch of leading a 3 Day Startup event and helped plan the anniversary of the 20th 3 Day Startup Austin event. Our organizers did an amazing job this semester like always and jumped in to help whenever we needed them.
• We now own way too many pairs of shoes! My brother and I both won a pair of Yeezys in a raffle. The Beluga 2.0’s were won at the newly opened Shoe Palace on Guadalupe and the Blue Tint’s were won on Adidas’ website the day of release. This added onto my growing collection of sneakers and rounded off a great end to the year!

2017 was a year for learning to adapt to change. I accepted my return offer from Amazon and as 2018 progresses, I’ll remember that sometimes life doesn’t move towards my goals smoothly. Even still, it’s important to set goals.

Goals for 2018:

• Work out more — Yeah, this kinda speaks for itself, but I used to do a better job when I was enrolled in a weightlifting class at UT
• Learn how to manage personal finance — As I start my new job, it’s important for me to learn how to manage my money
• Produce more beats — like at least one everyday, then in two years catch me on the Billboard Top 40
• Cook even more — Try new recipes, try new flavors, I want to get out of my comfort zone and bring some of my Mom’s chinese recipes with me to Seattle next year
• Write on Medium — This is my first post, but I’ve realized writing has been extremely cathartic and fulfilling for me

Happy New Year! (3 days late)