Dairy Entry #3: Reflections, Challenges, and Achievements

Welcome to my fabulous newsletter, where you'll get a glimpse into the mind of a 16-year-old navigating the highs and lows of life. Join me on this monthly journey as I document my personal growth💫📖

Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all had a restful month. I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas🎅. I come bearing gifts! What are they you may ask? Well, I'm gifting you my insights and takeaways from this month!

Before we begin, let's talk about my goals for this month. Sadly, I didn't get as much done as I thought I would🙁😞. Nevertheless, let's go one by one and talk about them.

Replicating A DNA Computing Simulation

I'm proud to say that I was able to accomplish my goal. It took me longer than expected. I wanted to build a project within the domain of DNA computing. I was fortunate to find a video that gave me a run-down on how to replicate the Adelman DNA computing experiment in code. The process was fairly easy, but I wanted to put my spin on it. Sadly, in switching minor details, I created a bug within the code😵‍💫.

PS C:\Users\Junia Celestin> & "C:/Program Files/Python312/python.exe" "c:/Users/Junia Celestin/Desktop/Junia!/Apply.py"

c:\Users\Junia Celestin\Desktop\Junia!\Apply.py:36: SyntaxWarning: invalid escape sequence '\C'

  print(f"\Complements Created: {complements}")

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "c:\Users\Junia Celestin\Desktop\Junia!\Apply.py", line 2, in <module>

    V = len(vertex_names)

            ^^^^^^^^^^^^

NameError: name 'vertex_names' is not defined

PS C:\Users\Junia Celestin>

The results of my broken code😓…

I needed the help of ChatGPT to debug the code. I realized that one of two things happened. I didn’t know how to read phyton or I didn’t have a depth of knowledge regarding DNA computing. I’m leaning towards the second option, but I have a feeling that it is both…well, we can add learning Python to my bucket list! I realize now that I need to read more research papers and increase my knowledge of DNA computing. I want to be able to build more projects in the field with more confidence. I can't do that if I lack a depth of expertise.

Making a Video and Writing an Article About DNA Computing

Unfortunately, these were the tasks that I wasn’t able to complete. Which was partly because of the time it took to complete my code.

sighs**

I realized the importance of setting deadlines for tasks. I should strive to complete tasks in less time and with more intensity. I don’t want to not complete a task because of the prolonged duration of another task. Breaking the goals into small tangible tasks and setting more intense deadlines might help me accomplish my goals in a reasonable time.

Gathering Data on My Productivity

I don’t know if you can recall but I made a plan to gather data on my productivity. I planned to track the time it typically took me to complete a task. Sadly, I didn’t gather as much data as would have liked. I wanted to track reoccurring tasks, like doing my math homework or studying for a class, but I realized that it wasn’t the best time to do so. I didn't have schoolwork or tests to study for. Christmas break was around the corner and teachers were starting to wrap up the number of assignments, tests, and quizzes they assigned to students. I attempted to time-track one-time tasks, but the data wasn’t useful since they were tasks I only had to do once

The time-blocks that start with “actual” are my time-tracking blocks

I still have faith in this plan so I’ll keep time-tracking and follow up with you guys next month.

Growing My Audience on LinkedIn

For starters, I could have been more specific with this goal. Midway through the month, I realized that I have no way of knowing if I completed my goal. I wasn’t specific about the number of people I wanted to reach. I could have easily gained one connection and by default, I would have accomplished my goal. Nevertheless, the process of growing my audience wasn’t that bad. I was able to grow my audience with the help of the TKS community. I reached out to various members and asked them to connect!

This was my LinkedIn account on November 27

I also got some advice from my TKS friend

Angelmay Beck

. After hearing her advice, I realized the importance of building in public and being more active on your platform. I also took note of the importance of just being yourself on the platform. With that knowledge in mind, I fixed my about me section, posted about the new opportunity I received(keep reading to find out more about the opportunity), and fixed up my experience section.

My new LinkedIn account!

I know it isn’t perfect but remember done >perfect!!

Insight From This Month’s Goals

While reflecting on my goals this month. I realized that my goal-setting techniques were off. I focused more on my input rather than output which took away from the point of setting goals. I realized that my “goals” were tasks that I wanted to complete by the end of the month. They weren't things that I wanted to gain by the end of the month. I realized that I needed to focus more on why I wanted to accomplish that goal and while setting goals I needed to ask myself “What do I want to get out of this?”

Having a New Opportunity

Part of the reason why I didn't get much done this month was because I had the opportunity to take part in a sprint challenge. This month I got to work alongside Meta (yup, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) to create a solution that helped keep Meta’s young users safe online. For a kid my age, this was an opportunity of a lifetime, so I could just approach this challenge half-heartedly. For the duration of the challenge, I had to put my personal goals on hold to provide the best recommendation deck possible. I had the privilege of working with three other amazing individuals,

Giovana

(shout out to her!!💗💗) Abhijit, and Erim on this project. It required a lot of hard work and patience. The process of problem identification and solution ideation was a bit frustrating. It was honestly a game of trial and error. It required us to dive deep into the crevices of the company and find data to validate our problems and solutions. The challenge was both exciting and exhausting. By the end of the challenge, we were able to submit a recommendation deck that we knew we could be proud of. The deck practically oozed out blood, sweat, and tears.

Here’s a picture of our intro slide!

At the end of the challenge, my team and I had a debrief, where we talked about the highs and lows of the challenge. By the end of that, I realized the importance of discipline and habits. During the second week of the challenge, my optimism and motivation ran out after having a few setbacks during the problem-identification and solution-ideation stages. There weren't many days left of the challenge and I was a bit nervous. During that time, I realized that once motivation runs out that is when discipline and habits kick in. I realized that the reason why I could not contribute as much as I wanted was because I didn't have the set of habits I needed to fall back on. During our debrief I realized that from now on I needed to work on discipline. A cool way I could do that was through habits. Habits like working in the absence of motivation and working in the presence of stress.

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Phew, that was quite the newsletter, wasn't it? Quick question for you all: Do you prefer these updates short and sweet? Let me know!

Now, about that mysterious sound... Oh, you're curious about my plans for next month? Well, that's a secret you'll have to unravel in the next entry. Until then, catch you later, everyone!