This semester, the one avid reader of my blog may realize that there recently has been a severe dearth of posts concerning research: the most common topic of my first semester posts. The astute reader may wonder why this is. After all, this research was one of the most interesting things I did--it went on every college application, gave me something outside of school to do, and was the first taste of a job I had ever had. The problem was one of time. Whether it was poor time management, or simply the fact that I wanted to enjoy senior year, I found myself completing less and less work as the year dragged on. Last summer, I was completing an assignment every week. Last semester, it dropped to an assignment every month. Finally, this semester, I have yet to do anything significant for the project. And the problem just snowballed. The less I worked with my code, the less I understood it, and the less I was able to work with my code. The experience at the very least taught me the importance of commenting code.
The hardest part of the entire process was letting the professor and the grad student know that I was stepping out of the project. I realized that I couldn't juggle both the demands of school and the demands of research in February. Still, I only took the time to draft the email a week ago, and finally sent it out today.
I learned a lot from research, and not just about computer science. Still more important, I believe was the chance to interact with others in a professional setting, and to make horrible blunders like not communicating for four months. These are things better done in high school than at a first job.
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