My last 4 years at University
From the desk of Samy,
Four years ago, when I started University (by the way, I was so innocent… haha), I found out that school was nothing compared to University; however, till then, I thought I had worked as hard as possible. It wasn’t true, though. It turned out that University was very hard because of its teaching mode: the main difference was that teachers talked and wrote problems/theory in the blackboard without taking care of their students. It was your problem if you didn’t understand anything and it was your problem as well if you wanted to stop them in order to ask questions (I have to remark that ask questions to the teachers was, and is, never a problem). They got to the point and the time for practising exercises was your responsability, at home. In my case, it was like trying to jump a precipice without knowing it was there… haha I did like the degree but I had been going to a private school since I was a little one and I couldn’t play hooky, ever… So you can imagine what happened. I just thought: the average of my degree is 7-8 years, I can lie around one year and then, start seriously (and I meant it). But I got wind that I would have to repeat almost aaaall my first year… and I, deep down, didn’t want it. So I studied on June, quite hours. At the end, I passed half my exams. I’m still asking some teachers why they didn’t let me pass because I did the exam quite well… But it no longer matters, time has gone by since then. That year, I had 2-3 labs maximum and 5 subjects per year. Aprox. mark average: 4.2 out of 10.
I started my second course and I had to retake some subjects so I did half of the first year and half of the second year. I didn’t lie around so much but I still didn’t study much hard (well, with this I mean that I studied a standard time, that’s to say, kind of the same as most of the people, even though my degree could be more difficult, like all the engineerings). But I started to have the feeling that the third course was gonna be hard because I met some people who already was at 3rd course (they were older than me) and I always saw them working till late at night and so on. Furthermore, I used to train at nights, 9 hours per week (+ matches…) so I started to reconsider my life. Waw, it sounds really strong, doesn’t it? It’s not exactly this way but computing was catching me and the more I learnt, the more I liked it. I also fell in love with electronics and economics, I don’t exactly know why but it was just this way. So, I started to backtracking all my future possibilities: what about another degree? a master? study two degrees at the same time? I was confused! Finally, after backtracking and analyze all the possibilities I arrived at the conclusion that electronic engineering would be a very good option… And study an MBA as soon as possible too. This last option will depend on my income money at the time, of course. At the end of my 2nd year, I gave up basketball (I really loved it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I used to and University asked for a lot of time). I passed all my exams but one… We were improving! Aprox. mark average: 5.5 out of 10.
My third year was a radical change: if I thought that from the school to the university was a huge difference, this year wouldn’t be less than a universe difference. Seven subjects the first semester (6 on the second) and each one had labs/projects… but one… that turned out to be the most difficult one of my degree. And labs/projects were no longer superfitial or easy ones but quite difficult. Well, I can assure I was working really hard, specially in exams period! I missed basketball but I didn’t regret to give it up because otherwise it would have been impossible to pass EVERYTHING! first time at university, ever 
Aprox average: 6.8 out of 10!!
Fourth year: it’s been a nightmare! I hardly can go out someday! There is no day I don’t have work to do, we spend almost all the day at university (where is that famous university life? I don’t see it!), I’m programming, designing, building, calculating… WAIT! I’ve just find out what university life is!
If nothing changes, I’ll study electronic eng. (it’s 5 years more but after studying science computers and choosing the right subjects there, I will only need a year and a half to have it) and if I can, an MBA, in a near future. I didn’t like to study much when I was at the school, but once you start to study stuff you like, the things you enjoy to experiment with… Everything is different. As a sample, the subjects I like most I don’t have much problems with them, but the ones that either the teacher is boring or the subject is horrible… bff! Anyway, I’m expecting kind of the same qualifications as the 3rd course because even though it’s becoming more and more interesting, its difficulty is directly proportional to it! So, I hope I’ll pass every subject, or at least, I’ll attempt it! but with a 7 average mark aprox.
Somebody may think that I’m crazy and that I expect too much of myself. Well, I’ve learnt it playing basketball. It’s not a fantasy. A few years ago, when I was 1′90m and I played VS Barcelona, Badalona, Manresa, Valencia… (ACB teams), I had to play against monsters of 2′03-2′07m. Of course I was in disadvantage, but it didn’t mean I had to give up! I had a really good trainer: he always told me that even though they were bigger, I had to go ahead playing as damn good as I can. And it turned out that most of the times, I played better than them, and because of this, I was quite a good player. Even when my opponent played well, I was satisfied because I had tried as hard as possible. So, if you try and fail, you won’t never regret it and you will have achieved the best result possible. On the other hand, if you don’t even try it, either you will get always nothing in return or you will get less than what you expected. This is why I always try the maximum, and if I can’t get it, I’ll have tried my best. Let’s let the time goes by and see if I was right or not. I used to say a sentence that I liked a lot…
The harder, the better. You have to try to climb as high as you can ever dream.
…SaMy*^60
