I’ve just spent the past two hours building a machine learning model for one of the modules I desperately need to finish by the end of next week. I find that I quite like building them. In my imagination, it’s like operating really heavy machinery and making things work. Only this time, there’s no enormous diesel engine but rather massive amounts of cloud computing power.

It’s just as well that I find this stuff interesting because I have to finish three more classes on it by next Friday. Then in July, it’s the month of the final project. I am doing that one too and will be coaching the academy through it so it’s not quite good-bye to those amazing women yet. They are already flying though, highly sought after. One of the ones who struggles the most with confidence told me when she left this week that her family could see the change in her, how much more confident she was and how she carried herself. Interesting to think that learning data science can do that for you 😉

Raven has been in my thoughts alot as well. I see shades of him everywhere, in serious 8 year old boys on their way to school in the tram to the awkward teenagers that carry themselves with a much bigger attitude than they have. I make eye contact deliberately. I choose to see them and to think about my son.

Also with all of the back and forth regarding the (un)employment status,  there are plenty of emotions to deal with. I range back and forth, like one does with any other loss. On one hand, I am busy with my future now which is liberating and exciting to think about. On the other hand, my feelings are hurt and I am angry that out of all of my colleagues, no one discusses the subject nor asks me how I am feeling about it. It’s like a social leprosy.

Then again, that’s also another checkbox marked on the list of “100 Reasons to be Grateful that I am Leaving”. 🙂