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Gap semester

For various reasons, the latter half of my 2025 ended up becoming a gap semester. I graduated undergrad back in May with no certain future prospect of the upcoming years: I didn’t hear back anything promising from my PhD admissions cycle nor job applications. Fortunately I had an internship lined up for the summer, and there I made connections to then lead to my current work with Purdue. Herein, I spent a good amount of my time from August to now leading a research project and learning a lot. I then got into MS starting spring 2026 and decided to commit to grad school. So looking back, my fall 2025 now looks like a gap semester.

Looking at the time I spent, overall it felt decently productive (w.r.t my life and not specifically career/academia/job or whatever label). Below I write things that happened (or didn’t happen), not really about research.

Things I found myself prioritizing:

  • Games:
    • Rhythm: During my summer internship, I played a ton of Maimai with friends I made. Since I enjoyed it a lot, I planned to continue afterwards, and during the beginning of my gap sem, I often went to Gigo Ikebukuro to play Maimai. I haven’t played in a month or two but I peaked around level 11-12 I think. I’ll definitely get back into it.
    • Story: Almost done with Kingdom Hearts and finished Inazuma Eleven Victory Road. I’m also heavily procrastinating on FF9, Chrono Trigger, and Raidou. I’ll get to them… eventually. Playing and finishing story games always leaves a sentimental mark on me, like sobbing your soul after your first watch of La La Land.
    • Multiplayer: I first was grinding DbD but once I got into SF6 I moved all my time to that. Perhaps I’m an adrenaline-junky or something b/c from a long time ago I enjoyed competition a lot. Given my history of competitive games, I always knew that pros spent a ton of time getting good, but I think SF6 is where I truly first felt the absurd skill gap between me and the best.
  • Health stuff:
    • Gym: I actually wanted to start boxing or MMA, but the gyms here looked absurdly expensive. So, I decided to go to a regular gym and just lift weights. Progress was overall slow but I found some small gains here and there, particularly with my pecs and lats. I didn’t expect too much though given I don’t spend that much time, so I overall felt content with this.
    • Running: My endurance has always been pretty poor since I was a child, mainly due to my asthma being severe back then (now it’s basically non-existent). I thus started running more, particularly focusing on consistency, 3-4 times a week to prevent breaking my knees. Overall made some progress. My pace right now is pretty lackluster (11min/mile across 3 miles) but I’ll get better. I’m prioritizing running as roadwork, not marathon-running, so it’d be nice if I can consistently run at around 8-9min/mile pace without being overwhelmed afterwards.

Things I planned to do but didn’t spend much time on:

  • Sewing: We have a small sewing machine and I live right next to the garment district area, so I planned to sew a lot. I still enjoy it and did find it cool in the beginning (e.g. learning tricks like using stacking old newspapers on top of stretchy fabric to ensure the fabric doesn’t move). I ended up sewing a zipper onto a tote bag and a couple drawstring pouches to put stuff inside.
  • Airsoft: I’ve never played but I wanted to at least try it out.
  • Learning a new language: maybe spanish or korean since they aren’t syntactically too different from english.
  • Overall, I think the main reason I ended up not pursuing these is because I legitimately have zero friends here. I was pursuing individual hobbies too much, I eventually started feeling lonely; hence I later shifted towards playing games online w/ friends.

Other thoughts:

  • Spontaneously, I attended some ML symposium/conference/get-together event and met some people and was offered an internship. I eventually turned them down, but I felt very lucky and I guess I find that even the smallest efforts you put in stack up to reward you.
  • My legs hurt a lot due to running. I learned that foam rollers really help with preventing pain, and using it especially the muscle near my knees helped to prevent knee pain. When I increased my running distance from around 2 to 3 miles over a weekend though, it seems my legs were completely worn out and couldn’t adapt b/c I had to take more than a week to recover–my calves hurt pretty bad and the foam roller doesn’t help with fatigue like this.
  • Finding housing when you’re not in-state (and not even in-country) is horrible. Maybe it’s just LA but many places are so expensive and/or the management has horrendous reviews. I was able to do a few virtual tours but nothing was promising and also in my budget. I also don’t know anyone to room with, so it’s not like I can find share/townhouses or multi-bed apartments. I respect anyone who finds success.