June

It was during the spring break, when I learned that my school was closing for the remainder of the semester and that we would continue our studies through distance learning. We were not allowed to remain in the dorms, and that for me, without the ability to stay somewhere in the US, meant a return flight home. Don’t even ask me about how insanely difficult it was to get any kind of plane tickets. In the end however, I managed and returned home through Lisbon. As a matter of fact, the flight that I was on was the very last one, and afterwards all the flights from the US to Prague were canceled. What do I say, LUCK!

After I came home, I did not have much time to settle in as I immediately had to start with schoolwork. In all honesty, it was not easy. Especially when it came to my mathematically based classes. It is really difficult to work on physics, math, statics etc. without the ability to meet with the professor in person and discuss any kind of issues that I had with my calculations. Yes, we were able to meet with them through zoom, but for me that proved to be really difficult, especially due to the time difference. 

Even with such complications, however, I believe I did rather well, in terms of my grades. As a matter of fact, I did better than in the previous semester. Some classes, however, were, due to their difficulty through distance learning, changed from graded to Pass/Fail. If a student passed the class with grades higher than C, SE would be the resulting grade on the final report. As a matter of fact, even for this semester, I received the certificate of excellence and was mentioned in the Dean’s list. 

Besides complications with academic work, all of the afterschool activities were obviously canceled as well. I was sad when I learned that all of the Formula SAE competitions were canceled as well. I mean we put an insane amount of time into the designing and manufacturing all of the components, and finally putting them together. On the other hand, the experience that I had working with the team was absolutely incredible, and I cannot wait for their upcoming semester, as I am hoping to take my contributions to a higher level, one again. 

I mean, it has been some time, since I finished this semester, and I had quite a bit of time on my hands. I was looking for something meaningful to do, and I was blessed with having the opportunity to be a sub math teacher for grade 5 at the International School of Prague. What a great experience, and it really showed me that once I would not be opposed at all to becoming a teacher at some point of my life.

At this point it seems that I will be able to return to RIT at the need of summer if New York governor policy goes the way that all of us are hoping for. I cannot wait to go back and continue with my studies. With some of my professors I have planned out projects that I am hoping will give me a lot of experience and bring me closer to getting my dreamed out coop at NASA.