• Engineering was the hardest four years of my life. I studied seven days a week, usually till late into the evenings, with only Friday or Saturday night to unwind.  Physics didn’t come easy to me. Semiconductor theory, special & general relativity, radio communications, quantum physics, nuclear science – all of it was hard. I had to find a way to visualize what I was learning, and that was my biggest challenge. I nearly failed physics in the second year, while  enrolled in the Engineering Physics program! To this day I honestly believe that physics professor would have failed me. I can’t say for sure, how I passed, but, but I’m certain that he let me go because he saw I had passed my other courses. I scraped by with my lowest grade ever: 52%.

• I was petrified of failing any course. Not for fear of failure, but because I knew that if I failed any course, it meant adding an additional year to my studies.  From 19 students, I managed to graduate in the top half. During the week of my graduation I visited the Dean of Engineering, Gary R. Purdy and thanked him for accepting me into the engineering program. According to the Top 500 Universities in the World, there are four Canadian universities in the top one hundred. McMaster University ranked 90 in 2014.

• After graduation I realized there weren’t many options for me. I could have pursued a Master’s degree, which was a logical direction for some of my colleagues. That didn’t interest me. I struggled so much in the undergraduate program I felt I didn’t have the brain capacity.  Another option was to go for an MBA, but wanted to get some work experience first. Also, my graduating class entered the middle of a recession in 1991. So applying for any engineering job was a crazy affair.  I recall submitting my resume to a job that had 2000 applicants. In hindsight I wasted two years before realizing I should have just gone for that MBA while I still had the cognitive capacity. By the time time I wrote the GMAT, I had missed that boat, acing the math, but fairing poorly on the English part.

• This year commemorates the 25th anniversary of my graduation.

• Gabičko

If you missed other Gabičko posts, you can find them here:

• 18 • Gabičko • Mentors
• 38 • Gabičko • Chapter I
• 39 • Gabičko • Chapter II
• 43 • Gabičko • Chapter III
• 48 • Gabičko • University
• 51 • Gabičko • High School
• 53 • Gabičko • High School
• 56 • Gabičko • University

• Photo Restoration

• 7 minutes 20 seconds

 

 

 

• 1991 May 31 • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada • McMaster University, Convocation

• My mother only paid for my first year of studies. I managed to finance the latter three years from my summer jobs and working as the bookkeeper at my mother’s animal hospital.

 

 

 

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