“Knock, knock…”
There was a hard knock on my door, only to find out it was my uncle who brought a kitten in his hand that was trying to run away. He immediately came through the door and let go of the cat. The distressed kitten’s constant meowing, searching for her mother, mirrored my own journey of looking for a dream to pursue that could satisfy my need for challenge and happiness.
In my quest for a passion in a career, I tried many things, and with each step, it led me to what I wanted to do. Initially, I joined the debate club where I enjoyed listening, processing information, and constructing arguments. I also started playing basketball; it was fun and remains a part of my life. Additionally, I began reading books like “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” “Jade City,” “Moon Hunters,” and “Man’s Search for Meaning,” among others, which gave me a new perspective on life—how money works, the meaning of suffering, and the depth within a person beyond what we see. I also started learning how to draw because I enjoyed drawing every detail, trying my hand at creating fun cartoons, stickman fights, and a few abstracts. Despite all of that, I haven’t really found the dream career that I want to pursue.
One day, while playing video games with my brother, I was astonished by the graphics and character movement. I asked him how they make it, and he told me that it involves large teams and years of effort. At that moment, I wanted to make it easier and shorten the time for game development. I researched some game designing software and wanted to contribute to making them better. Therefore, I started learning programming. First, I learned Python basics like printing in the console with the help of an online resource. After a while, I enrolled in a weekend, and after class course. I started a Python project for class, initially building a simple number-guessing game. Finding it too basic, I improved it to a game where the computer thinks of an element, and the user can ask 5 questions from the list available and finally guess the element. This enhancement led me to learn new concepts like dictionaries and lists. After I studied the concept, I began the project by laying out my thought process on paper and trying to implement the concept into code. The implementation was interesting because missing the smallest detail, just like drawing, would make it fail. Every morning, I would edit the code and invite my family to play, noting their feedback. On presentation day, I felt exceptionally proud as I confidently understood, implemented each piece of code, and created a game on my own.
Similar to how my cat adapted to our home, I want to explore more challenges in programming and learn how to use different data structures and algorithms to solve problems. I want to find problems to work on that can influence the world.