Mild Panic Attack

This is going to be so far from eloquent, but its been a week and many things have happened in my life in that week.

Classes started last Wednesday, and I am currently waiting (I say waiting...its going to be at least 18 hours until this stuff is announced) the project selection confirmation for my Engineering Design and Methodology Class, on which I will spend the vast majority of my time in the next 6 months, possibly longer. I wanted to work on the Formula-Hybrid race car, because it makes such a beautifully cohesive unit of study with my other two classes, and I love tinkering on cars. This is a student run project, though, so it has the reputation of becoming a little more stressful near deadline time, especially because you are working closely not just with other people, but also with several other groups. Apparently that reputation got around and very few other people signed up for this project. I labeled one of the sections as my third choice and the other as my second. Because so few other people signed up and this is a program that Thayer School will cling to obsessively, I am almost definitely going to be assigned my third choice.

This is a huge bummer, because my first choice is working with one of the best professors in the school (and NASA) in a double-sized group to build and program an autonomous robot that will Be Awesome. The people most likely to be assigned this project are all friends of mine who are great people to work with; and I like the idea of a bigger group. This is also one of the projects that I am most qualified for. At this point I would much rather work on the robot than the race car, but I think I'm going to get the race car. Still a cool project, but I'm having trouble looking forward to it. I still have a sliver of hope left for the robot, and that sliver of hope is making my heart race, relentlessly.