4 > 17 – Uni Experience
Hi,
I am Ramesh, the one with the blue shirt, having my dinner in the hostel’s mess probably by 10:30 PM. I graduated from Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, TN with a Bachelor’s in Aeronautical Engineering in July 2021.
It was July 2017 and after getting my college through TNEA counselling, I was relieved that I doesn’t have to deal with the donations and other things in the autonomous college, even though I was a little sad I couldn’t get into a Govt college. In August 2017, the college began, and I was admitted to the college hostel. I grew up mostly alone from my childhood as I changed schools 4-5 times and I have never been in a hostel. But to my surprise, I was not feeling scared or worried about being in a hostel for the next four years, I was just experiencing the day as things happen. On the night of the first day, all the freshers in the hostel were sitting and chatting and knowing about each other and a few seniors arranged some activities I remember being asked “Who is the richest person in the world right now?” because that is the day Mr Jeff briefly became the world’s richest person. Me being the introvert I am, of course, said the answer in my mind and not to the senior and lost the chocolate prize I deserved😑.
On the first day, we had all the department staff come and address us and they were discussing the opportunities that will be in the next four years I still remember they said the aviation industry will be in “Stonks” by the year we finish the course in 2021🚶🏼♂️ (But someone decided to eat a bat 👌🏼).
Days went by and I was on the first bench, made a couple of friends and roommates, and explored college in the first semester I didn’t do anything other than academics. I had a camera and tried to join the studio but was rejected in the selection process. I tried writing, chess club and a few other things, but couldn’t build interest in them and couldn’t stick to it. So, yeah, the first semester got over and I passed with a decent score.
By the end of my first semester, I came to know about this research forum on campus and luckily, they opened up for intake. I applied with an SOP and to my surprise, I got selected for an interview. I gave the interview with a shivering hand because I haven’t had my snacks that evening. I thought I messed up and after waiting for a week I got this mail that read “we are pleased to extend an offer”. That is the first interview cracked! and yeah, I completed my first-month probation as well!
By the start of the second semester, I started my “volunteering with benefits” at Ré and started to work on a research paper (without knowing what a research paper is) with 3 other classmates, more than completing the paper, we had some good long nights spent in the computer lab. we completed the paper and presented it at BITS Hyderabad🥳, my first air travel!
After completing it, we all got away without our stuff and I got very much interested in this research and publications and went to my professor and asked about research and publications, he started giving me some small works on his research papers. My research journey started!
I started studying new things and got interested in UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and focused on design and analysis of it and worked on it pretty much all my campus time. I started authoring and co-authoring different research papers, participated in the Aircraft design competition, learnt about flying drones and fixed-wing aircraft, organised a few events with Ré, and took a few classes to my juniors on research and publications, learnt a ton! life was good even though I only had like three friends and I enjoyed travelling to colleges like SSN, SRM, and IITM for my paper presentations, NAL Bangalore for my internship and got a few recognitions from the department!
And, March 2020 happened, Lockdown and went back home, which felt sad because I did not feel like visiting home after my first semester so, I stayed in college even during holidays or went for internships. Days became months and I got some special permission through Ré and went back to college in November 2020 😇 (there were like 20 students in college). I was happy because I could use workstations and labs to do my CFD simulations and learn things (yeah, I’m that interested in Aeronautics). Spent a few months in College working on a few research papers and got my internship at DRDO Bangalore! It was a dead end as DRDO was closed after a few weeks I went there for an internship due to the second wave😪.
As manufacturing companies were not going well, placements were not good, and I got an offer from an IT company as a backup – as a typical Tamil boy! Luckily, I had a decent LinkedIn profile and got a mechanical designer job in a technical business incubator and thought of taking it and preparing for a master’s through GATE (aim is to get into IISC for MTech Aerospace 2023). Shifted to Chennai and lived in a 2 BHK all to myself most of the time from July 2021.
Yeah, that’s my 4 years of ride, you might be probably wondering why I named this article 4 < 17, I spent most of the time alone while growing up and for some reason, I was not interested in cricket and cinema so had not many people to talk to. Looking back, joining the hostel for 4 years was one of the best decisions I made, it gave me so much hope, confidence and a ton of experience. I learnt a lot about people and got more clarity on life (at least I hope I did) in the past 4 years than in the 17 years before that. I have only shared the ups in this, but I also had some lows during these 4 years, days where I felt like shouting standing in the middle of the road. One thing I learned is there will always be a silver lining in every downside. We just want to learn to enjoy the process!
To the humans reading this, thanks for your time. Like many people already said, learn to enjoy the process! 🙂
After all, this, If you wish to say hi to me, reach me at roshanramesh2000@gmail.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/seek-find/. I will be interested to talk about evtol, start-ups and maybe hear your life experiences (I love listening to people!).