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Choosing the right path 

by Sashreek Bhagavatula
January 8, 2021

When I was in high school, I took Computer Science PreAP and Computer Science IB. I hated programming with a passion after taking these and didn’t want to even touch this subject. Four years later, I graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering. I am sure many people have gone through this similar experience and it is important to understand my point of view so that other don’t make the same mistakes I did. 

 

In high school, we were taught Java and I really didn’t find programming all that interesting. However, I wanted to be an engineer in the technical field because I saw that technology would encapsulate our future and coding would be the foundation for that. At the time physically building and designing products was something that appealed to me more than programming. When I entered college, as an electrical engineer, I realized how many opportunities there were for electrical engineers and software engineers. It made me think about my closed minded opinion of programming. I then pondered for the rest of the year, whether I should pursue a more coding heavy major like Computer Engineering or stick with a more hardware intensive route. 

 

By taking several courses in my freshman year of college, I realized that I really didn’t understand anything about programming in high school. I had a very close minded view in high school but by being more open minded in college, I took a fresh start to programming and enjoyed it much more than I did before. 

 

Going through this experience taught me several things. One, it is ok to not have all the answers and have a complete life plan by your senior year of high school. Part of the college experience is about figuring out who you are and what you like to truly do. Another thing is being open minded. Taking this approach will open so many opportunities for you and will allow you to find a world unbeknownst to you before.

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