Taking the L: Part ✌️ by Kayode D. '27

[i think i need to drop another class]

Hey gang, it’s your favorite failure, back to fail a little bit more!

I think that the weather has a significant impact on my mood. This week has been abnormally warm, up in the fifties, and it’s the most positive and happy I’ve been in weeks. I thought that this was just some psychological thing that people talk about happening to OTHER people, but no, it truly got to me. Now I’m feeling good, and want to blog a bunch! Maybe I have a seasonal writer’s block…

This semester I’m taking four classes: 2.007, 2.086, 6.1010, and 21.01. 

2.007 – Design and Manufacturing I

If you’ve ever done First Lego League of First Robotics, then you’ve taken part in a piece of MIT history. First Robotics was started by Woody Flowers, who was the first instructor of 2.007. This class is like the origin of everything engineering that I did in middle school. I loved lego robotics, and my mom can testify that I would stay after school literally every single day to build and work on the robotics board. 

The theme for this year is “Wicked FBD: Applying Gravity”, and the board is Wicked themed. There’s a poppy field in munchkin land, a train that goes to Oz, and a giant Oz head in the middle of the board that can multiply your point totals. The biggest challenge, though, is to retrieve the broomstick from the highest point on the map. 

This class is known to be a massive time commitment. On top of building and testing and refining your robot, there are also three homework assignments a week to keep up with. I did not do a very good job of keeping up with them in the beginning, and I am paying for that now. 😬

The Theme for this year's competition!

This is the game board from about a week ago. The board is covered in cool challenges that we design robots to accomplish.

This is from last year's competition. I think that it's a Rick and Morty reference, but I'm not sure [that was a kayode blogs reference, you can be sure]

Prototype of a tool I made to catch small flower poppy props. you have to carry them into a circle, and this was my prototype

And the final result! [that I will likely never actually use. Why didn't I just make a cow catcher?]

Cardboard mock up of the cad from last blog.

Metal rendition in progress!!

Bumped up MCM [Most Critical Model]. This is the integral part of my robot, and I'll explain more in the dedicated 2.007 blog that I want to write.

HYDRA

Previous Next

A great blog from Petey that shows more footage of the class!

2.086 Numerical Computation for Mechanical Engineers

2.086 is a class that focuses on how to use Matlab. We work through different algorithms and processes and code up solutions to some intense problems. It’s honestly my least committed class, and so I do the poorest in it and enjoy it the least. The very first pset, I waited until 8pm the night before it was due, literally the night of the SUPER BOWL⁠01 skip church to watch the 'Super Baal'? No thanks, I’ll be soaring on the wings of eagles, chief' . And I had never used Matlab before, but somehow I thought that my plot armor would help me power through it in one night with no help. I got 5% on that assignment.

They also have these interviews. You, the professor, and some other staff. One question, 5 minutes. The goal is to prove that you’ve been doing the homework and understand it. The question is specific enough that you’d only know the answer if you actually did all of the work, and there are unlimited retakes if you fail. But you HAVE to show up on time, or you forfeit the points. Guess what I did?

I set my interview for 10:45 AM on Tuesday, and I woke up at 10:45a AM on Tuesday. I woke up freaking out, I changed fast, woke up my roommate by accident, borrowed his bike⁠02 bikes are literally so fast. I got from Simmons to Main Campus in like 1:30 , and got to the office on the fourth floor of building 4 for the interview at 10:52. Seven minutes late. I was totally out of breath and asked if there was any way I could still be interviewed. They were strict, but fair, and did not allow me to take the interview, and I had to forfeit the points. I just sat outside the office completely defeated and lost. How could I have let this happen? Where had I gone wrong? This L was a punch to the gut.

6.1010 Fundamentals of Programming

6.1010 is known to be one the hardest coding classes among students. It’s a lot more intense and involved than 6.100L, and it builds in difficulty with each pset. So far, we’ve been modifying audio and image files with code, which created this masterpiece they showed in lab:

“You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are gray”

I really enjoyed the first few assignments, but I did not give myself enough time to finish them. Every Thursday night I am up until 3 or 4 in the morning coding. I was debugging one section of code that kept returning errors, and the issue was a SINGLE PIXEL IN THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER. The fringest of fringe cases. Grrr.

…

I thought that all of this seemed like a good course load when I signed up for it. Apparently it was not. I have not turned in a single pset this entire semester that was both on time and completed. I’ve been averaging 70% on all of my assignments. And I know that I could do better. I’m really excited about⁠03 some of my classes, and I want to do well in them. 

I had a talk with my instructor in 2.007 recently that didn’t go the best. He told me that he knows I can do good work, he’s seen it. And he doesn’t need to know what’s going on in my life to be taking up my time, but if I want to be successful, I have to start committing more time to my work. Not cramming and powering through everything in one night, but intentionally working to get caught up and do well in the class.

…

I reached a point one night where I felt so defeated. I had so much work to do, so many Psets and readings and labs to do, and certainly not enough time to do them all. I could feel myself slipping away. In defeat, I looked at my phone and saw a message in a Cru group chat sharing that there would be a spontaneously planned prayer and worship in the CFL⁠04 Christian Fellowship Lounge, in the Religious building at MIT that night at 8. It was 7:30. I had so much work to do. I had every reason and then some to say that I was too busy. But I knew that this was literally too much for me to take. I packed up and headed over. 

It was what I needed. I remember what got through me the most was the song “Make Room” by Community Music. The lyrics says “

Here is where I lay it down

Every burden, every crown

This is my surrender

…

And I will make room for You

To do whatever You want to

To do whatever You want to

… ”

I realized that I was holding on too tightly. I wasn’t making room for God. In my scheduling and in my day, I only ever prayed/read my bible in the morning or at night, when I was extremely tired. I wasn’t making time to rest or spend real time with God. And even more than that, I wasn’t making room for God to work spontaneously in my life. I was so pressed for time constantly, and I didn’t even have time to be with my friends or spend time with people. I felt like a zombie that wasn’t very good at being a zombie.

I needed to make a change. Something has to go. I decided to drop 6.101. At first, I didn’t want to drop anything. I’m only in four classes, which is for the most part the standard number to be taking in a semester. To drop to three would not set me behind for graduating, and I don’t even necessarily need 6.101 for course 2A6. I am just so in my own head that this is the way it has to be because this is the way that I’ve seen it done, and to quit or back out is to show weakness. 

…

The other day, a professor of mine mentioned that they read and enjoyed my first “Taking the L” blog, and so I went back and read it. Reading it, I realized that 1. It’s a fire blog and 2. I should take my own advice. Dropping a class or dropping to a lower level is not failure, and even if it is, that isn’t a bad thing. Failure is not the opposite of success, but a step towards it. You learn to appreciate the fruit of success from the lessons of failure. And you only really fail when you give up. I literally wrote that. 

And now I feel so much better, you have no idea. I can actually work on all of my homework, and I can focus my time to get stuff done before two in the morning. 

My point with this blog is this: You don’t have to do a morbillion things to be successful. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. You don’t have to get 100% on every single assignment you’ve ever done in your entire life. Life goes on.

And you need to rest. Even God, maker of Heaven and Earth, rested after making all of creation. But if he really is as powerful as he says, why does he need to rest? Because he was setting an example for us. So make room for rest.

…

I started writing this blog at around 5pm⁠05 on Feb 27th, haha . It is now 9pm before the 6.101 pset is due. I planned to still finish this pset in the event that I end up actually sticking with the class, since I have enjoy it and maybe there is a way. But looking at the work I have ahead and all the other work I have, I truly didn’t think it was possible. So I began to pray. I prayed “God, I want to take this class. But I don’t see any way to keep going. I have so much to do, and I don’t have anything else that I could give up and keep my sanity other than this class. I just need help. I don’t know what to do.” and literally AS I’M PRAYING THIS, I get an email. It’s from the 2.086 Professor. And he’s asking if I am free tomorrow afternoon to do the interview. 

The Lord is good. In our waiting He is working, whether we see it or not.