September Update

This summer was marked by a vision. Every summer, I pledge to myself that I will get up at 4:30 am and do master's swimming 4-6 times a week. Towards the end of April, I saw the Toyota US Open qualifying standards for swimming released and I reflected on my last season of college swimming and the opportunities I missed. Adding insult to injury, my 200-yard breaststroke record, which stood strong for 6 years, was finally broken. The Toyota US Open seemed like a stretch, but as my biological clock kept ticking, I felt this might be my last shot at glory. Thus, I committed to 6-8 practices a week, channeling the same dedication I had in college. I gave myself about 11 weeks starting from the last week of April for a full training and taper cycle, leading up to a meet on the final weekend of June.

My hard work bore fruit as I clocked 1:04.43 in the 100-meter breaststroke and 2:23.14 in the 200-meter breaststroke, performances good enough for the previous year’s TYR Pro Series, although falling short of the Toyota US Open standards. As of now, I am eagerly awaiting the qualifying standards for the 2024 TYR Pro Series.

Unfortunately, after the meet, I contracted a terrible illness that left me debilitated and devastated for almost two months. The initial week was particularly tough, with a relentless headache and a constant cough. Even as I battled the illness, I pressed on with my PhD research and took on harsh manual labor at the Hessaire Phoenix warehouse, a period I would describe as one of the most painful and exhausting of my life. After my studies, I took on the responsibility of hauling 400-pound pallets with a pallet jack into semis. This physical exertion, coupled with my illness and my mental exhausting engulfed me in a realm of pure misery, and I questioned my very existence and the choices that brought me here. My life during this period felt like a tape on loop, each day a monotonous sequence of pain, labor, and academic pressures, a trifecta that threatened to swallow my sanity whole.

As I navigated these trying times, an oasis emerged in the form of a definitive diagnosis in the closing days of August. The presence of the IgM antibody in my test results pointed to a recent valley fever infection, a revelation that was as much a validation of my ordeal as it was a beacon of hope. With a determined spirit, borne from weeks of battling unseen demons, I now had a tangible enemy to confront, providing a glimmer of light in a tunnel that was once consumed by darkness, ready to reclaim what insanity and illness had stolen from me.

Simultaneously, I was engrossed in working on two concurrent publications, one targeted for the TVCG and the other for the CHI conference. While I managed to wrap up revisions for the TVCG submission by the end of July, the CHI paper is facing a tight deadline on September 14th. There is a chance we might miss it and opt for a different venue. Amidst all this, I am steadily advancing in my PhD journey, with plans to initiate my final paper next month. The PhD grind has somewhat turned into a routine — a humdrum amidst the hustle and bustle of life, something I neither adore nor despise. I look forward to graduating, hopefully by the end of 2024.

Last night, our TVCG submission received a minor revision notification, which meant only a couple of hours of work left before we can publish. I started this project almost two years ago with my lab mate, whose name is coincidentally the same as my last name.

Looking forward, my aspirations are tied to the pool once more. As my PhD workload diminishes, I plan to rejuvenate my swimming regimen, pushing boundaries in pursuit of qualifying for the 2024 US Olympic trials in the 100m breaststroke. The target time seems a stretch at my current 1:04.43, but I am only 2.24 seconds away. I am resolved to give it my all, seizing this moment that might not come again. Yes, there will be opportunities in 2028 and 2032, but by then I will be in a different phase of my life. It’s now or never.