Hi everyone!
I hope you all had a great day off on Veteran's Day last week! Salute to the all the troops and everyone who served!
Here's how my week (starting from 11/06/2025) went:
Early morning flights are always brutal, but way worse when the government is shutdown.
The team's flight was at 6:40 AM not terrible, but the veterans on the team wanted to be there by 4 AM so we can check in our bags, get through TSA, and get settled, so they told the newcomers to be ready by 3:30 AM to get picked up on campus. If the government was not under shutdown, I would heavily question the decision to be at the airport almost 3 hours before a domestic flight, but it was not, so I give the vets a pass. What I would not give a pass on is saying to be ready at 3:30 AM to arrive at the airport by 4 AM, but pick us up at 4:15 AM, this was just pure sleep-deprivation hazing. As one could imagine, I was livid, I pulled an all-nighter for no reason, but I slept through the flight, so I guess it evened out.
I want to give a quick shout-out to every team manager I had. You all went above and beyond to make sure the travel experience for players was smooth and easy so all we had to do was show up and try to play our best. I was really spoiled and took you for granted. You never know what you got until it's gone!
Even with the government being shutdown, flying to Seattle (not flying back, we will get into that later) was very smooth. I was able to deplane and get my hockey bags within 30 minutes that usually never happens, good stuff SeaTac Airport. Arrived in Seattle at noon, then headed down to Pike's Public Market for lunch. I had Pacific Northwest Poutine at Jack's Fish Spot, which is basically clam chowder over fries, pretty good I recommend. It was very nice to eat something over than dorm food for once, even if it's tourist junk food. Unfortunately that "fine dining" experience did not last long, after walking around downtown Seattle, I headed to University of Washington, and ate probably one of the worst grilled cheeses of my life for dinner. How do you mess up a grilled cheese? This further warrants my claim of terrible university food is a universal experience in North America.
University of Washington has a beautiful campus, I am very happy for my friends who get to go there and very jealous that they have a college football team there, but not jealous of the weather, they can keep the rain. I apparently came at the start of the rainy season, I feel bad they have to suffer those conditions for week's to come. It was fun catching up with friends, walking around campus, and studying at Suzzallo Library (better than Geisel). I do not know why UCSD keeps marketing Geisel all the time, insinuating that is the only thing the campus has to offer, they should market the beach more. I am getting off track, but in short, I had a great time in Seattle.
Bellingham on the other hand was brutal, there is nothing going on there at all. In my opinion, the only thing it has to offer is that it is only one hour away from Vancouver. I wish I would have tagged along with my teammate on Saturday to Vancouver as I had my passport on me, but I had to study for my midterm instead. The team went 0-2, first loss was atrocious, and we should have won the second one, but onto the next now. I think I played pretty well for the most part, but did not produce on the stat sheet, so I am still pretty frustrated with myself. I was hoping to finally get the monkey off my back in those games, but I guess I will have to wait. I know it's not a matter of "if" it will happen, but more of a matter of "when" it will happen. I know once I break, I will break. At this point it is all mental, and I just need to figure myself out and get my game back.
I will never forget the events that unfolded on Sunday (11/09/2025). This was the first time I really questioned if there really is 24 hours in day. I woke up at 6:30 AM to get that free continental hotel breakfast before we left Bellingham at 7 to make our 12 PM flight back to San Diego with a no plane change one hour layover in San Jose. Everything went smoothly until landing in San Jose. The plane was on-time and everybody boarded fine, but they had to switch out the flight crew. The crew never came, and the whole flight got cancelled. I went from arriving in San Diego at 5 PM with ample time to study for my midterm to potentially missing my midterm. I was stressed and what sucked the most was being home in San Jose, but not being able to go home. The situation was out of my control, so I had to calm myself down and let it play out. Thankfully the team got a rental car and was able to drive some of my teammates and I back to campus to make it in time for our midterms. I tried my best to study in the car, almost throwing up three times, then calling it quits. I got back to my dorm at 2 AM, reviewed material for an hour, then passed out at 3 AM.
Furthermore, I am very grateful my roommate woke me up because if he did not, I probably would have slept through the midterm. Unfortunately that did not help because I failed that midterm. I got maybe one or two questions right, but the rest, I did not even know what to do. Despite my circumstances, I know for a fact I did not study hard enough, but I am glad I was able to take that I still showed up and took that midterm, even though I failed. There's honor in simply showing up. I do not want to dwell on this midterm and my scores any longer because I know what I must do now. My back's against a wall and I got to come back for Game 7. My professor used Napoleon Hill's quote at the beginning of the course: "No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or another, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure." I know I am more than capable of passing all my courses this quarter, it is going to be a real grind, but I will win, believe that!
Veterans Day was pretty fun. I explored San Diego a bit, had lunch in Little Italy, and visited the Japanese garden at Balboa Park. $14 admission fee had me messed up, as a student, my tuition should cover it. The garden was very underwhelming, I am biased though because I have been lucky enough to visit Japan numerous times and my eyes are spoiled to see the beauty in the gardens over there. I am looking to head back to Japan in April not for Spring Break, but a semester abroad at Kyoto University. I do not know officially if I am in yet, but with what the study abroad coordinator told me is that I am guaranteed to get in. UCSD's study abroad office got back to me and approved two classes I planned to take at Kyoto University for upper division credit towards my major, so I am not really delayed and still on track to graduate on time when I get back.
Wednesday and Thursday, I did not do much, but the usual; go to class, team lift, club meetings, and finish homework for the week. It is so nice having access to the D1 Sports training Facility and the trainers; I really get that sense I am a "student-athlete" even though I play club. I do not like that moniker of "club" because for me hockey has and always been about the "team." Club is just a group that comes together to socialize for an interest, a team is way different. UCSD Ice Hockey needs a culture shift and I look to help be a part of it in the coming years. I had a club meeting for Triton Solar Car on Thursday, which was pretty fun. I am on the battery team and my group finalized our on-boarding project of making a quick test to check the "health" of over 400 small batteries, ensuring they are all equal, so the car's main battery pack is safe and can perform. I am pretty lost in the makerspace, but I love being there. Seeing how all the other subteams work, and looking at the CAD renderings on the monitor, then staring back at the car chassis is such a cool experience. I feel like I am in Ford v Ferrari, and I take pride in being able to say I am part of the team that built UCSD's first solar car. We look to finish the car this year and be able to race in the American Solar Challenge next summer, then in Bridgestone's World Solar Challenge in Australia. The goal is very ambitious, but I believe in the vision, and it is going to be fun, chasing this goal.
My circadian rhythm is completely messed up. I overslept on Friday and completely missed my discussion. Fortunately, all my lectures and discussions are recorded, so I am able to catch up on missed content through podcast. I made it to my 11 AM lecture, one of the first Friday ones, I attended in a while due to being out for hockey weekends, and it went quite alright. We went over Phasor analysis and diagrams, which is all stuff I learned back in the Physics: Electricity and Magnetism course I took at EVC, but have not mastered yet. I still have a lot of checking up to do in terms of the content of my circuit analysis course and my engineering in C course, I got one more midterm for both of them on the same day on Monday, 11/24/2025. I just need to take everything one step at a time. Focus on the process!
Moving on, I was able to enroll in the courses I need to take next quarter, which is a huge win. I got very lucky with my enrollment time and with my schedule also. I am taking 3 courses again; ECE 25 - Introduction to Digital Design, ECE 45 - Circuits & Systems, and ECE 65 - Components & Circuits. Although, I might add another course since the hockey season is going to end, and I have more time, but I also want to start working again. If I go to Kyoto, I need to earn some good money, so I was thinking of transferring to a Raising Cane's in San Diego (hopefully my $20.25 hourly wage carries over to San Diego) or work for dining on campus. Better, yet I get a 10-week internship that is highly unlikely, but I am not counting that option out. I am desperately in need of more experience, and I am willingly to accept any and every opportunity that comes my way.
Besides working on the battery team for Triton Solar Car, I am also on the team for making an EMG Prosthetic Hand for Triton Neurotech. I am currently unaware of the progress on that project because the meetings are every Saturday, and I have been out the past two weekends for hockey. Playing hockey takes up majority of my free time that I could allocate to my other clubs, but that is ok because I love playing, and I am not going to quit. Fortunately this weekend was the last travel weekend for games, so I can be more present and active in my clubs going forward.
This weekend, I played USC and UCLA. 7-4 L to USC, I had a 0 +/- with 4 penalty minutes (got to get on the stat sheet somehow). I had two minutes for fighting, defending my line-mate, and two minutes for hooking, which was a terrible call. I lifted the player's stick in front of the net to avoid a goal, and they called me on it. The game was very frustrating, a lot of back and forth goals on critical shifts, which is unacceptable. 8-2 L to UCLA, the Bruins absolutely whooped us, but fun game though. I got to play against my boy and catch up with some old teammates. For the most part, I say I had solid games this weekend, but I am not producing, which is killing me. I hate that both school and hockey are not going well for me, I need to figure out a way to overcome these hurdles.
I got a new development in my life; I officially wear glasses now. My prescription is nothing too crazy, I just have astigmatism in my left eye and near-sighted in right. Reading that sentence back, my prescription does sound pretty intense, but I do not think much of it. Hopefully instead of making me look smart, I actually become smart with glasses. I just came across a crazy revelation; I get prescription Meta AI glasses to wear for my exams, the proctors cannot take away my sight 😂. My eyesight was 20/20 when I did the eye-test at the DMV a few years back, but I guess looking at a screen every day and a few brutal hits to the head can deteriorate your vision.
This is a lengthy log, so I am going to start wrap it up. I am currently in Week 8 now, just got back from UCLA, and found out I scored 1/12 on the midterm 😂. There's only 3 more weeks of this quarter left, I still have 2 more midterms, which are next week, then finals are up. I am not going home for Thanksgiving, so I can be all in on passing these courses. This weekend and last week were very busy with high and lows, but overall very enjoyable. Do not forget to smell the roses! I have to remind myself that I am in the middle of what I used to pray for, and just enjoy the moment!
That's it for now, see you next week!