The once and future growth.

May 18 2014

Three little life stories, and two requests:

About a week ago I started a garden on my ugly concrete balcony. It’s been cheap, surprisingly exciting and the relevant internet communities are a delight. My mother is also happy to see me engage in one of her long-time hobbies, so it’s a win on all fronts. Today I had to thin out the radishes a bit because it was getting very crowded. Going at them with scissors was hard, but it’ll be worth it!

Over the past seven years I’ve tried my hand at three different degrees: applied physics, teaching physics, and now embedded software engineering. It’s been a hell of a ride – frequently terrifying because I’d screwed up again, or exhilarating because something appeared to finally work out for me. This one’s the first that I’ve stuck with for more than two years, and yet I don’t regret the others: I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren’t for all the other situations and people I’ve had to deal with.

About seventeen years ago I joined a choir for the first time, following in the wake of my sister. Today I’m the treasurer for my second choir, and I could probably spend another six hundred words on all the ways these two choirs have been good for me. I don’t know about the global situation, but around here many choirs are in dire need of new members. Often they’re not too picky about your experience either – if you like to sing you can probably learn how to do it well ;)

On that note: I’ll be leaving my choir in a few months and am looking for something new. Today it occurred to me that something other than singing might be nice – acting, dancing, anything really. Maybe someone on here knows who would welcome a 25-year old newbie to their arts?

And while I’m here with words to spare: I’m looking for an internship in embedded or industrial software engineering. I’m fairly passionate about providing libraries and tools that are very useful to other people, and generally just enjoy making things fit together well. I am known as “barometz” in various online places, including GitHub.

I hope this was at least a little interesting to some,


Dominic van Berkel
[email protected]
Eindhoven, The Netherlands.


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