Meanwhile, I gradually increased my computer usage from 2 to four hours per day, taking long breaks between working sessions. By the end of the week, I was making small tweaks to my setup and was able to work a total of four hours on the computer per day. Through the rest of the semester, I continued to recuperate, minimized my computer usage, and made it through the semester with a decent GPA.
Through the semester, my pain gradually got better but did not go away. I still needed to make further changes. I knew the internship at Microsoft would be intense, so after the semester was over I learned the Dvorak keyboard layout, based on recommendations from my friends and the research I had done. Unlike QWERTY, the standard keyboard layout, Dvorak was designed with good ergonomics in mind. I pushed back my internship so that I had exactly two weeks before starting, giving me enough time to learn the new layout. I gradually became more adept at the new layout while still being able to use the old layout. Today, I am bi-layout. I can touch type in either layout, though I am much faster in Dvorak than I am in QWERTY.
The internship at Microsoft was extremely intense. I was working six days a week and ten hours a day, since I had a project that had a tight deadline. Microsoft has a sink-or-swim culture, and I was working in the Microsoft Office group, which is a cash cow of Microsoft. I continued to have pain, since I was pushing myself to the limit of my productivity using the tools I had and the computer athlete concept. I met my deadlines and some of my stretch goals and had a very successful internship at Microsoft.
When I came home from the internship, I had still more challenges to face. I had decided to play basketball with my uncle and my friend during my grandparents’ anniversary party. While going for a rebound, the ball hit my finger, and I began to feel extreme pain. I continued to play for a few minutes and then decided that I could not play anymore; the pain had become too severe. I went to the Emergency Room and learned that my left index finger was broken. The timing was incredibly poor; I was going back to school in one week, and as a computer science major, I would need to use my hands to program.
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