u/Smarties_Mc_Flurry

Im currently a Sophomore Computer Science major, and my entire freshman year I was essentially juggling schoolwork, club responsibilities (I was an technical lead in a CS-related club), and battling chemotherapy all at once. It felt like I was in survival mode that whole year, and after experiencing something so intense and impactful, everything in my life has felt sort of bland or meaningless. The world would keep turning regardless if I survived chemotherapy or not, and I think that realization at the end of my treatment is what kind of sent me into this feeling of being detached to reality. My birthday came along and I found that I didn’t even want a single thing, and interactions with my family began to feel scripted, like I was observing my life through the lens of a camera. And, while my motivation for CS was extremely strong prior to/during treatment, I had completely lost all motivation after it was over.

However, as I’ve spent time rebuilding my life, going to the gym again and taking time to hang out with loved ones, I began to realize that I genuinely still did care about some things, especially other people. I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to spend my life doing something that I can be extremely proud of, and will be have a unique and meaningful impact regardless of how stressful or intense it was. Ever since the start of summer, I’ve been thinking about doing something in the medical field instead of continuing CS. The thought of being a doctor/surgeon, and being able to see the positive impact I could have on others sounds extremely fulfilling to me. I’m sure I’ll change my mind a lot about what I want to do specifically in the medical field, but I do know with all my heart that I want to do something that has extreme apparent meaning and positive impact on other people.

I just wanted to hear from people with experience in pre-med or the actual field of medicine, what advice would you have for me, and what should I be prepared for? I know it would be a massive undertaking, but as someone who only believes all we have is this one life, I truly want to spend it on a career that I can be proud of and fulfilled by. Thank you all.

Hey fellow strugglers, I mostly just wanted to come here to share my feelings on each individual arc and how they compare to the prior direction of the story.

I recently introduced Berserk to my friend through the 1997 anime, and he absolutely loved it. Thought it was peak fiction, and I agree of course. Now, he’s begun reading the manga, which got me thinking about the rest of Berserk that has yet to be animated. I’ve been thinking deeply about each individual arc and all the things that happen, as well as how different each arc is, and how cool it would be if they were animated.

Something I realized is that the Golden Age is where so much deep context is fleshed out for the rest of the overall story. It really does feel super tightly woven together, all the war politics and the relationships between Casca, Guts, Griffith, and the other hawks. Getting to dive into Guts’ childhood, Griffith’s philosophy, Casca’s journey and character development, literally every aspect is so intriguing and captivating. It truly is an absolute masterpiece with excellent writing. While I think the whole Wyald chapter was really quite terrible and a bit too much for that point in the story, The Eclipse is undeniably one of, if not THE most impactful moment all of Berserk, and definitely one of the most memorable pieces of fiction ever. I think the writing here is phenomenal, and really makes us super invested in all the characters and connect with them on a very raw, human level.

When I think about the later arcs, Lost Children comes to mind as one of the only sub-arcs that made me feel the same visceral emotion and enthrallment as the Eclipse did. Lost Children tells a very grounded story, where Guts, a broken being shrouded in darkness and despair, serves as a pillar of hope for Jill, who is facing her own perils. Not to mention Rosine is just such a tragic villain; her ideologies as an apostle and her influence on the people around her is beyond fucked up, but her story makes her feel so human and relatable that the whole sub-arc is just heartbreaking. As someone who has a soft spot for children, and seeing Guts, a broken man who is practically a monster in his own right, battle to the death with a child who has fallen into this distorted mockery of paradise and escapism from the horrible world of man, oh my gosh. By far the most beautiful arc I’ve probably ever read in any manga ever.

The rest of conviction was quite good as well, I really enjoyed the more dark fantasy route that the story was going at this time, even if things were beyond fucked at various points (looking at you, evil sex cave). The dark fantasy vibes were there, the emotion was there, it was peak. Sometimes I think a lot of over-the-top evil and horrors are needed to make you really feel the emotions of the characters, and boy does Conviction Arc make you absolutely root for Guts.

Millennium Falcon is a tough one for me. On one hand, I absolutely love how they flesh out Griffith’s motives, and some of the apostle characters they introduce are literally more interesting than probably half of Guts’ crew in this point of the story. While I really do like the whole theme of Guts gradually learning to trust people again and rely on others, I do think that the sequences following Guts and his new squad felt kind of strung together spontaneously and not really methodically thought out too well compared to the Golden Age. I absolutely loved the artwork, and I did enjoy the dialogue we did get about the astral world and the politics surrounding Ganishka and whatnot, I just felt that the dark fantasy elements kind of began to be diminished halfway through this point in the story, which is alright. I must say though, any time Skull Knight showed up it was just beyond awesome. When he gets his Behelit Sword of Actuation when he shows up in the cave with Slan, and the whole battle sequence at the end of the arc where he intrudes on Griffith and he uses his sword slice to merge the Astral World with the physical world, holy moly, by far the coolest sequence in all of Berserk. The Griffith/War side of this arc is what made it so darn good in my opinion.

Fantasia is coming along very well, and I actually really like the direction that Mori is taking it especially recently. I think the best has yet to come, and I’m excited to see what awaits us later on in this arc. Yeah, the boat stuff wasn’t that cool, and I don’t really enjoy how half the dialogue basically just becomes joke interjections from Isidro and Puck, it had already got old in Millenium Falcon arc honestly. The Falconia stuff in this arc is absolute PEAK, it’s so cool seeing an intricate civilization again with all these characters convening again. The downtime we get in Elfhelm I think is really well spent, and the whole sequence of Casca getting her memories back is something I (and probably lots of other people) have been waiting so long for. Really made good use of the side characters and I appreciate how it also fleshed out some of the cool apostles like Irvine. Really interesting stuff in this arc and if it were animated it would be extremely neat.

As a whole, Im not exactly sure the precise reason why The Golden Age gets the most hype, but I think it definitely has to do with the influence of the anime as well as The Eclipse just being an unforgettable moment in the story. I truly do love the other arcs though for various reasons, the story truly changes shape as it goes on and at the end of the day, everyone will have their own opinion. Some people, such as myself, love Lost Children/Conviction and would consider it to be equal or even better than the Golden Age, whereas some people are less inclined to it and see it as too edgy or just pure filler. Some people absolutely love the latter half of the story over the first half, and really enjoy the epic moments of the Millenium Falcon Arc and just the general change in direction as it blends into Fantasia. I think the story is by far the most beautiful and easily one of the most well-written fantasy stories in all of fiction, and I’ve read all of Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion.

TL;DR: I think the Golden Age definitely has more tightly-knit and cohesive writing than other arcs (for the most part), but I do think the character development, art, and plot in the later arcs are just SO darn good. I wonder if they were animated with the same respect as the 97 anime did for the Golden Age, they would receive a lot more hype and recognition. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Just finished my freshman year, trying to build stuff without using AI. A few months ago I tried making an app and asked AI to guide me through the steps, and while I had it explain everything it was doing and learned the general flow and architecture of things, I didn’t hammer in how to actually code it from scratch. What is the most effective way to learn how to build a full-scale project from scratch with limited knowledge? Do you just consult tutorials/random documentation pages online? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Recently applied and did a week of training, they expected me to pick up everything in only 4 days. Everything from repairs to the whole portal system and sales, especially sales. I actually put forth my best effort and positive energy, but it slowly became a dreadful experience due to the leadership around me. I actually did many successful repairs, and while I was slower on picking up the customer side of things I did eventually get it and did it for like the whole fourth day, only issue is I failed to make any insurance sales though I did pitch a few. Usually Im pretty decent at selling people and getting people captivated with my words, but I just didn’t really feel like the insurance products were something I felt proud of selling. It felt like I was basically trying to scam all these old customers and people who were down on their luck out of even more money, so I naturally gravitated away from it. The higher ups were definitely stern with me and already made up their minds, so I ended up quitting.

TL;DR if you are looking to work here as a technician, just know that the job is literally 75% high-pressure insurance sales and 25% actual repairs.

Hey there. For context, Im a CS freshman at a non-target school, I’ve been going through chemotherapy for like a year but I’ve still been pushing through college even if my GPA isn’t the most excellent. In my one year of college, I’ve managed to build one project in my free time (I never quite finished/deployed it, and I would often consult Gemini if I got stuck/didn’t know what to implement next), and I managed to become an officer at the Google Developers Group club at my college, where I hosted my own workshops etc and it was a great experience.

The issue is, with chemo going on, I just can’t help but feel like Im so behind compared to everyone else. It seems so hard for me to put things in motion, hell I can hardly even get hired at Best Buy or Walmart. With that, I was never the student who was inherently cracked at math: I got a C in precalc and calculus, but took it again in college and got a 100 because I really hammered it in. I aced all my English/reading and writing stuff in highschool however, but I don’t think it serves any major purpose in what I want to do career-wise.

The thing is, I really do love computers and I actually get a lot of dopamine from coding, especially when I figure out how something works and I get a sort of “lightbulb” moment. Im just not entirely sure how to become as cracked as some of these other people, like how do I genuinely learn to build a full backend for an app on my own without using Gemini? How do I actually “learn” job-related skills instead of just regurgitating knowledge Im outsourcing? I would love some guidance. Thank you all.