Will This Be Worth It?

"Will this be worth it?" This question used to keep me up at night.

During particularly challenging assignments or jam-packed semesters, I'd wonder if the struggle would be worth it in the end. I aim to offer some insight to this question in this blog post.

I was mega burnt out towards the end of last semester.

I would attend career fairs with little hope of finding a summer internship and drag myself to lectures every day knowing I would zone out within the first hour. 😵‍💫

But here's what I didn't know back then: I would win a department-sponsored ticket to attend the Canadian Celebration of Women in Computer (CAN-CWiC) conference, interview with a company I met at a booth there, and be working a winter co-op job with them three months later.

This co-op term has been the healing and well-timed break that I didn't know I needed. It feels like the late night study sessions were worth the opportunity to be mentored by senior developers, chat with fellow interns in the lunchroom, and feel the power of applied software engineering.

Whatever it is that you're working towards, the day will come when you get it. Perhaps it is only one more sleepless night away.

So was it worth it? I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader. 😉

There is hope. Better days will come. Rooting for you and your happiness!

– Anisha Latchman, Third year Computer Science and Cognitive Science @ U of T