I spent the weekend thinking it through. Not spiraling, not stressing, just thinking clearly, the way Aaron had suggested. Did I want the Computational Linguistics Challenge because I loved the work, or because I was trying to prove something?
Sunday night, I got the answer. It was obvious. I wanted the problem. The frustrating, exciting challenge of teaching a machine how humans actually talk… the tone, emotion, context, all the messy stuff. That kind of work lit my brain on fire in the best way.
The fact that Leah was on the team was a bonus. The fact that Silver was on it… was just a factor. One I could handle.
On Monday, I went to Dr. Vance's office. "I'm in," I told him.
"Excellent!" he smiled, handing me a thick binder. "First team meeting is on Wednesday at 4 PM in the AI lab. Don't be late."
On Wednesday, at 3:55, I was outside the lab with my binder, feeling that nervous excitement that comes with starting something new. I could hear voices and laughter inside.
