Fall 18, Kendall Garner ’21, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Hello everyone! My name is Kendall Garner, and I am here to talk about my transition back to MIT.
Near the end of summer, I joked with my friends that I would have more free time during the school year than during the summer. I thought, taking four classes, a UROP, and a work study would afford me more freedom than a 40-hour work with a large solo project.
Had that been everything, I would have probably been right. As it turns out, I would not be satisfied with that alone. After talking with my advisor during the beginning of the year, I decided to add LAing to my plate. Soon after, I also decided to join a few student organizations, adding small projects to my growing commitment list.
Despite the my increasing number of roles, I feel at the same time that I am able to better plan out my time. Although I worked remotely during the summer, I was still expected to work a certain amount of time each week. While I still have some of that this Fall (20 hours), my class time and work afford much more flexibility. Surprisingly, I have very little class time this semester; as a result, I am able to plan out my work surprisingly well.
As for the work-study itself, my role has always been a bit unique. Rather than have a pre-defined role, I typically take on whatever responsibilities we need. However, with the onset of a large project, I expect that I will be taking increasingly more roles, from server and API management to designing interviews to miscellaneous projects.
In the end, I feel that this year is going to be all about learning how to manage time. However, thanks to all the flexibility I have been given, I feel that it is an achievable goal.
