Remember 1995? I do. The song of the year (for me) was Alanis Morissette’s Ironic. I memorized her songs, bought her CD (my first!), and all in all worshipped her. Because of this, Alanis has always had a special place in my heart. Who can forget one’s first CD, right?

So there have been a couple of flashbacks to 1995 these past two weeks. While in Chicago the weekend before last, I saw one member of my middle school posse (I’m lazy, so I haven’t posted pictures yet … but they’re coming). Not having seen each other since the end of 8th grade wasn’t even an issue. We filled in the gaps and went on yapping like any good friends would. It truly amazes me how some friendships last forever seemingly naturally, while others wither regardless of how much I work to maintain them.

Flashback #2 is more how my recent life deserves a song from the past to describe it, and none other than Ironic. Those closest to me know that I have been struggling for some time now with this idea of grad school, and my lack of excitement for my current project does not help my struggles. I left computer engineering because I disliked programming day in, day out. I switched fields to pursue bioengineering because I thought that I would be more interested in it. However, what ended up happening was that my computer engineering background made me a shoe-in for projects that involve computational modeling. So the irony comes from the fact that I left computer engineering because I didn’t enjoy it, but in the end, in bioengineering, I still got pidgeon-holed into programming doing exactly what I tried to avoid by leaving computer engineering.

Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?
A little too ironic, and yeah, I really do think
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s good advice, that you just didn’t take
And who would have thought it figures?