Reflection on Today

It's been four years. It's a beautiful day, and I have just finished the last class* that I will take as an undergraduate student. Kind of a scary thought, in many ways. In the fall, I will start medical school, the next phase of my life. There are still a few months before I do that, however.

In other news today, I had my first opportunity to see the new world-class facilities to go with the world-class doctors that make up the Johns Hopkins Hospital:

The main public areas are beautiful and might be what someone already expects when they think of a top-notch hospital, but rest assured that this is brand new. Hopefully all of the improvements for patients designed into the facility are already being realized.

A nice anecdote I heard today while observing a surgery involved the old operating rooms at Hopkins, now no longer in use (I don't know what the future plans for them are):

• The old ORs had been in operation for 110 years (granted they've been upgraded and renovated over the years).
• The first and last scheduled (i.e. non-emergency) operation to be performed in the OR suite was a shunt revision.

All in all, a good day.

*That last class happened to be 520.222 Computer Architecture with Prof. Jenkins; I have to say that this has been one of my favorite classes and professors during my time at Hopkins and I would highly recommend anyone with an inclination toward CS/EE/ComputerE consider taking this class as an elective. The material is very interesting, and yet sufficiently challenging without being overwhelming (though some may disagree with my evaluation). Update 5/8: See also this Washington post article on the new Hopkins building.