What a year! I have to say… I was soooo happy at my REAL home at the beginning of the year…. and had to leave for Princeton… after reviewing both the Chinese and US market… I decided to gain some industry experience in the states… so immediately after I was back… I started looking for a job in a down market…. I wondered… hesitated… worried… depressed…. really depressed… I even asked my advisor to give me one year extension on my study…. though my secret intention was not afraid of not being able to find a job… but simply to stay at Princeton for one more year…. however… my crude advisor frankly told me… “NO”… maybe he was sooo smart that he saw through my underground purpose? (to be honest, he was still a very nice guy… he left a back door for me… saying I could submit my readmission application…) but still… I had to look for a job… after several unsuccessful interviews… I finally got an offer from a company I really wanted to get into… suddenly got excited…. then geeerrrr…. it was over… didn’t want to think about it ever again…
Knowing I would leave Princeton… soon… itself was a painful thought… so I played a lot… had a number of gatherings… went to the Street a few times… went to the international festival… communiversity… fristfest… watched movies at UFO… played pools… basically I went to every activity I could think of… hanging out with friends was such a fun thing to do… well… I had my first and most memorable surprise party… in the middle of final exams… It was quite a SURPRISE for me! Now I will still laugh when I watch the video clips some guy secretly shot in front me… no kidding… he secretly shot the video just under my eyes… sorry… no video for you guys…. it was my good old days…..
Then the semester was over… half a year was such a short period… went away in a glimpse… June was my last month at Princeton… I had to make use of my last chance… so I went to NYC quite a few times… just to meet my old friends… went to Atlantic city… went to Boston… and many places… however, I still left a lot of places unvisited… I didn’t realize it until I was about to leave… when I was at Princeton.. I always told myself that I could go there one day… but I did not… I wish I had been to Acadia… west point… or even the statue of liberty… can you believe I still haven’t been to that place!
I started my first ever full-time job… which was quite a change for me… I was afraid of saying one extra word… afraid of walking one extra step… //grin… and I had a lot of things to do to settle down on the other side of the Continent… find a place to stay… get a car… purchase furniture… and in the mean time… I had to work on my thesis…. my book chapter… gosh… I was soooo busy at that time…
And it was my happy time again… I went back to Princeton to defend my thesis! I was sooo excited about it because I could go back again… I took an entire week off… left my vacation days in negative numbers… I stayed in a friend’s place… played and played again… played Mafia… went to the street…. ate in the eating clubs and dining halls… hang out with friends… and of course… defend my thesis… you can’t assume that I didn’t prepare it… In fact, I rehearsed it many times… a long time before the defense date… (as I always do)… the date was Oct. 5th, 2005… (the date was 10, 05, 20, 05… my favourite number is… of course… 5… what a day!) The committee was: Prof. Jha, Prof. Kung, Prof. August… the presentation started at 1:30pm… went quite smooth… not many questions asked… shortly after I left the room and waited anxiously in my office, Prof. Jha came in, in smile… he shook my hand… and said: congratulations, you are a doctor now…
And it was over, no celebration, no excitement… as expected… well. an era was over… it was indeed over…
And I went back to bay area… life was plain as water… till the end of the year….
2007/10/23