What I Want Out of CS

16 Jan 2018

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Growing up as a 90s kid, I’ve always been surrounded by computers. I can remember interacting with computers from the beginning. Although I did not receive my first computer till I was in about the 4th grade, I always remember going to CompUSA with my dad. My first computer that I received was a Macbook and I remember just downloading youtube videos. I couldn’t believe that you could watch movies on a battery powered machine. Instead of watching my brother’s and sister’s hand me down VHS anime on our 100lb CRT TV, I was streaming anime off the internet through the air with no tapes required.

Throughout high school, I became an avid PC gamer. I remember playing TF2 and trading virtual items to try to make money. This is where I was first introduced to bots. Players would setup Bot accounts that allowed them to automatically make trades with others for a profit. I couldn’t believe they just made money by doing nothing! After a few google searches, I found people had shared their code on a site called github but I didn’t know what any of it meant. I had kept this in mind until I entered college and declared my major in CS.

I am now taking my first software engineering class where I hope to better my understanding of coding. What I would love to take from this class is to be able to make my own tools. Whether it be an Item trading bot or a security tool that I can apply to my other classes, I want to code for myself. I feel in order for me to become proficient at coding, I have to learn to solve my own problems by making tools for myself.