Also, may I ask how do you know so much about the topic? I would really like to one day work on OpenJDK/Graal, but I just don’t see the road ahead me.. — I’ve just started my master in CS, but I don’t feel it closing the gap at all. Surely I can read up more and more on the topic in small steps, but I would be very grateful for any guidance/pointer.
How did I learn about it - mostly by reading their papers, watching their videos and asking lots of inane questions on their Slack. Also, I happen to live around the corner from where the Graal team work so occasionally I've been able to meet them in person and ask questions then. But mostly I just followed their efforts for a long time. I got interested in Graal back before most people had heard about it, after somehow randomly encountering a discussion of TruffleRuby on Chris Seaton's blog. Then I wrote about it here:
https://blog.plan99.net/graal-truffle-134d8f28fb69
Most of the Graal guys came out of masters and PhD programs at JKU Linz, so the path you're on is a well trodden one. I wouldn't feel down about it. For me, how it worked was quite mysterious for a long time and then one day it clicked, and I saw the essential simplicity behind the concept.
It's not uncommon to do a CS master Thesis as part of an internship, if your university allows that. We have plenty of topics to choose from and you can also come up with your own.
Good luck!
And (shameless self plug), implement a Truffle language. Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pksRrON5XfU&list=PLN193mR3Js...