Stuck in a Loop

01 Sep 2023

Back in my day

When I was still a wee elementary student, I got involved in my school’s FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics program. We constructed our robots out of LEGO parts and programmed them using simple block coding — it was really cute. I remember the satisfaction of watching our robot’s wheels traverse the classroom floor and feeling like I had outdone all of NASA’s space rovers. Ever since that early exposure to programming, I knew that I wanted to work in tech.

Endless possibilities await

Years later, after 3 more subsequent robotics teams, taking AP Computer Science in high school, and a few computer science courses at UH Manoa, I was still determined to keep working with computers, I just didn’t really know what I wanted to work on.

I’ve been stuck in a loop of waiting for some epiphany where I’ll know exactly what I want to do with a computer science degree to no avail. Once you learn the fundamentals of programming, there are infinitely many ways to apply them and the choices have overwhelmed me. I have both an appreciation and a resentment of the flexibility of this field. But I hope that by exploring all of these different applications of software engineering, I’ll be able to find a niche that I’m passionate about.

For now

While I’m not looking to commit myself to anything in particular, I’ve been pretty interested in exploring web and app development, mainly because it’s what I have the most exposure to as a user. It’s amazing how we can be convinced to spend hours and hours scrolling through an app or clicking through a website. My goal isn’t necessarily to entrap others into becoming chronically online, but rather to continue finding the small ways to improve our day-to-day lives.

Currently, my main goal is to improve myself as a programmer – writing more efficiently, having a deep understanding of what each part of my code does and why it’s the best choice for the job, etc. And with the skills that I attain from that journey, I want to apply my knowledge to more specific projects and see what I’m capable of.