Day in the Life: Graduate Engineering
Hey, y'all! I'm excited to share with you my first blog post on my new page.
For those who are just now joining the ride, I'm currently in year 2 of my graduate studies. I'm pursuing my Master's in Data Science, specializing in the intersection(s) of clinical machine learning, deep learning for cancer research, and computational pathology.
I'm a Black Trinidadian-Bostonian from Roxbury (not a surprising combo if you're from Boston) who speaks Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. I'm also a huge anime nerd, a musician, a coding bootcamp founder, and a freelance data scientist. Outside of that, I'm a Graduate Researcher at MIT.
Many of my friends and social media peeers have asked me to share my experience in grad school. I've realized that it'd be a lot easier for me to turn this share into a post!
So here's a day in my life...
The Commute
Every morning I wake up around 7:15 AM to prepare for my commute to campus. I live in Roxbury, the heart of Black Boston, and it's where I spent my childhood up to age 11 and then age 18 onward. It's a tough hood for a variety of reasons but it's also my first home and a defining part of the man that I am today. Honestly, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
However, my school is actually located outside of Boston. So, each trip to campus requires me to take a 90 minute T ride each way for a total of 3 hours of commuting each day. Which sucked because my first class was at 9'O CLOCK IN THE FRIGGIN MORNING! *insert crying emoji*
Also, for those who aren't familiar with Boston culture, the T is what we call our public transportation system (short for MBTA). For the rest of the state, it's MassDOT or just the DOT. Controversial opinion, but I call anything in the city that moves and has a T on it the T, NOT just the trains. If I'm on the bus, I'm taking the T. If I'm on the OL tryna get Dominican food from Centre Street (likely platanos maduros, moro de gandules, pollo horneado, guanabana, y dos pastelitos), I'm on the T. If I'm on the trolley in Mattapan, I'm on the T. If it has a T on it, I'M ON THE T!!!! LOLOLOLOL
But anyways, getting to the bus at Nubian (formerly known as Dudley Station) is about a 5-10 minute walk depending on how busy it is (or how late I overslept lol). There are stops along the way but the drivers either miss me or it's always overcrowded so I just walk since it's not a force.
Walking on Warren Street in Roxbury (across from where MLK used to preach)
Once I hit Nubian, I can quickly grab some Dunkin' (bacon-egg-and-cheese on a plain bagel and a coffeeroll) and hop on the 23 or 28 to Ruggles (free bus as a result of Mayor Wu's dedication to assist the poorest part of the city). A couple times, I tried to take the 1 which ends at Harvard Square but it took WAY too long with morning traffic. I could also take the Silver Line, our Rapid Transit line, to Downtown Crossing via SL5. Technically, the SL4 will take you to South Station (Red Line) so you could avoid a transfer, but clearly you don't want to get there on time cuz that's the wrong way!
Honestly, Nubian is one of my favorite parts of the day because you get to see familiar faces while you wait and the older folks expect good manners. When most of my day is spent in coding or working on proofs, it's easy to forget to be a human being. I get that re minder here each day. Also, the bus drivers are miracle workers and I have massive respect for their courage and versatility each day.
Nubian Station in Roxbury (formerly known as Dudley Station)
After I hit Downtown, I can take the train headed to Alewife and walk another 10 minutes to campus. I usually walk because the buses don't run as frequently outside the city unless it's rush hour. So, I'd have to wait 22 minutes or so as opposed to walking there far more quickly.
Train platform on my morning commute to campus
I usually stay on campus most of the day to study because I prefer to study in silence. That's really hard to do in any part of Boston (if you actually live in the city). In the fall, I was working late nights as a Graduate TA and a little over 20 hours a week, so I would often get home close to 12 AM. It was DEFINITELY a risky move but I needed the TAship to pay my way through school. Now, did I go almost the entire semester without a cent of pay due to discrimination? Perhaps a story for another time...