A Brief Story of Self-Destruction

In 2015, my Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Engineering wanted to highlight me, a sophomore, to represent the Computer Science department. My name, face and bio would be displayed around the school. I had founded their hackathon and two clubs, was their webmaster, was on the Computer Science Industry Advisory Board, had three internships, involvement with the engineering co-ed fraternity, shadowed a PhD student through her research, and a number of other notables.

And when I showed up to the photoshoot, I felt deep unworthiness.

I walked out.

I was thinking about how my post-hackathon interview wasn’t smooth, how I didn’t have all A’s, how I partied too much and was spiraling into complacency & hedonism…

Soon thereafter, I dropped out. Of everything.

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