Today, we had a Luncheon Lecture with Elliot.  I found his journey to pursuing a PhD interesting, because of all the things that needed to happen in order to lead him on that path.   This lecture has led me to wonder what I’ll encounter on my path to pursuing a PhD in Computer Science. One thing that I learned from this lecture is that you are where you stand today because of the decisions you made in the past.  Even the decisions that you don’t think will have too much impact on your life can completely change your course. In addition to the luncheon lecture, today we had a barbeque and geocaching. The path for geocaching was hot and filled with bugs, but it was nice seeing the scenery of Ames, and how tranquil it is.  I am really enjoying my time in this program.