The Road Ahead

30 Aug 2018

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When I declared myself a computer science major, I had no prior experience. In fact, I planned to be a business major! It wasn’t until the end of my junior year that I decided to take a different pathway. With no prior experience with coding, you could only imagine how intimidated I was when I walked into my first ICS class at the University of Hawaii. At the time, the language we were taught was Java. The syntax of coding was something I had never encountered before, and it took me a while to finally get the hang of it. Although it was stressful, I found it a fun challenge. Fast forward to the fall semester of my sophomore year; I had some experience in coding now and felt confident I had gotten the hang of things. Then I found out i’d be learning a new coding language.

Almost immediately, flash backs of my freshman semester hit me and I was worried that once again, I had a lot of learning to do. However, instead of wallowing in self-doubt, I decided to face the challenge head on. Thankfully, my previous experience with Java helped me understand the logic behind coding, and the syntax did not differ by much. Overall, I find Javascript as a good programming language. I find that this language is not as specific as Java is in terms of labeling variable types or declaring data types, such as arrays. I find that I can type code a bit faster because of this.

Another new experience I encountered this semester was Athletic software engineering. In my first year of college, I was given a long period of time to work on a code. This semester however, puts me in a race against the clock. Although it is very stressful, I enjoy how it tests and challenges me to be a faster thinker and typer. It also tests my capabilities and allows me to reflect on which skills I should improve on. I wouldn’t say I completely enjoy this style of learning, but I do feel that it provides me with great practice and conditions me to work well under pressure. Although a part of me is worried about the semester, another part of me is excited to see what’s to come.