2012 is almost over. It was an awesome year. Thanks to everyone that made it that way!
1.) The year began by entering a very intense second semester of my freshman year at the University of Michigan. I learned a ton about how to handle a tough schedule and balance my time wisely.
2.) After applying to many various internships, I found out that I had an offer from Path in San Francisco, a company that I had dreamed of working at.
3.) Besides just talking the normal workload, my friend Chris Wendel and I taught an iOS development class under the guidance of Prof. Ringenberg at U of M. We had the opportunity to build and give lectures. We made new friends, learned a ton, and gave a few students new skills to get internships.
4.) I made some great new friends through school. I can’t even name all of the great people I met.
5.) I worked the few month or two of the summer at Detroit Labs, learning again from Henry Balanon, Dan Ward, Nathan Hughes, and Paul Glomski.
6.) I made the trip out to California. I began working at Path, exploring the city, and learning true SF/silicon valley startup culture. It was amazing. I lived with Chris Wendel in the heart of downtown. Living on my own that far away from Michigan was a true adventure, and I am so glad I decided to make the jump this year. Least enjoyable part of this summer: sleeping on an air mattress for 2+ months.
7.) Since I was finally out in California, I was able to spend more time with Stacey Ferreira, cofounder of MySocialCloud. Besides explore the city, and the California coast, I was able to spend a lot of time with her and her brother. Midnight walks around San Francisco were awesome.
8.) I was able to speak at the Teens in Tech Conference in August! Thanks to Daniel Brusilovsky for that amazing opportunity!
9.) I came right back to Ann Arbor for school in September.
10.) I just finished a semester filled with much caffeine, great friends, and much math and code.
11.) I was able to head back out to the Bay for interviews in Palo Alto and the city.
12.) I was fortunate enough to receive offers from Path, Flipboard, Twitter, Detroit Labs, and Apple. I accepted an Apple internship for the summer.
Looking forward to next year, I have a few goals for myself. I want to become a better software engineer. One of the main reasons I chose to go to Apple was simply that I wanted a place where I could learn the most. By expanding my knowledge from simply iOS to Mac development, I will learn a ton more about Object Oriented Design, deeper components of the Objective-C language, and the Cocoa Framework. Regardless of where I choose to go in the future, I feel that Apple will give me a solid background.
Next, I want to learn to even better manage my time, and be more productive. Throughout the course of the past few months I have tried to work in freelance projects. Although the projects do get accomplished, I want to improve the way I schedule my time and mangage school, projects, and everything else going on in my life.
Finally, I will be turning 20, and I know (mostly) what I want to do with my life. I want to continue to maintain and seek out friendships and relationships that help me accomplish my goals and push me beyond them. I want to make sure I take the time to do what it takes to keep these connections in my life strong.
Andrew Rauh 