How I Got Here (1/n)
Recently I’ve been reflecting on how I got started in computer science; from a guy whose worst subject in school was math to a first year Master of Science student in Computer Science (not that those two things are correlated, of course).
Starting from way back in elementary school would be too long (and a bit too personal). I’ll just write this this post (and maybe the next few) about my foray into the field starting from the summer before my first year of university.
The summer of 2015 was when the fact that I’d be attending university finally hit me. The months prior were filled with the classic “last year of high school experiences”: prom, grad pranks, worrying about whether some teachers would actually fail people, etc… Now I was right on the cusp of beginning my 4-year journey into post-secondary education. I was living alone at the time (my parents had made the move to another province), and was working at a Korean BBQ restaurant to save up some cash. The months quickly flew by and I soon found myself in my dorm at UBC.
If I could go back in time and give my first-year self some advice, I’d tell him: “Please don’t spend your first night at your dorm at UBC studying.” Looking back, that was a really stupid thing to do, but not something that I altogether didn’t expect from the person I was (and still am to this day to an extent) back then. I spent the first term of my first year taking the standard courses one would take as a science student: biology, chemistry, physics, and of course, math.
My first encounter with computer science at UBC was in the basement of Mack house at Place Vanier; my friend was hunched over his computer on his half of the room. He had his headphones on but I could see on his screen some old white guy (sorry, Gregor. This was before I knew you) wildly gesticulating while blocks of code flew in and out of focus. At this point in time, I knew I was going to be taking CPSC 110 in term 2, but I’d never seen any lecture content until that point. My friend, noticing that I was looking at his screen, quickly switched to another tab and said “spoiler alert” jokingly. I’d have to wait until Winter Break to catch another glimpse of 110 code.
By the time finals season rolled around in my first term of university (December 2015), I was pretty ready to not take another biology course again (BIOL 121 completely negated any chance I had of pursuing biology as a career). This was a pretty significant change from when I had first entered university, as I thought I’d always pursue biology. Little did I know that a course was waiting for me in term 2 that would completely change my mind.