We are now at the final stretch of spring quarter. I am excited but I am concerned about how much time we have left. Since this is the final blog following my journey into the computer science realm, and tracking my progress with my capstone project, I would like to leave on a good note. All the rush around final projects, and homework to turn in for various classes, it’s good to stop and look back at my time in this program. To realize how far I have come. To realize how much I have accomplished that, had someone told me I would two years ago, I would not have believed them. Despite the stress that I might be feeling in the moment, I have realized that pushing myself has given me a new lease on life. Just like exercising your muscles, you might feel sore during and immediately after, but over time, you see growth. I am seeing my mental growth now.
Do you know those people that you meet, they are well into their golden years and they are sharp as a tack. They do sudoku puzzles and play bridge and can remember things from 70 years ago. I have met people like this who have a better memory than I do, and I envy them. I can only hope to someday have a fraction of the same mental ability that they do. And then I realized, it’s because they continuously use their brain. This muscle that I have dragged through the mud day after day in a law firm, I could have been exercising by learning new things each day. And that is what I’ve been doing for the last two years. Contemplating new ideas, and pushing myself to solve new problems, I have not only expanded my knowledge, but I have also in a way allowed myself to feel more alive. Well this notion is meta-, coding provides exactly this type of mental exercise with each new program that you write. It stretches your mind in each direction, and forces you to explore new corners of your brain in order to shed light on unique remedies to accomplish your goal. And if you keep your mind in a state of continuously learning, and continuously seeking out answers, you extend that much more life to your brain.
Two years ago, I would have laughed at the idea of knowing how to build a website from scratch, or how to code an operating system in C, or how to develop a database. And I definitely would not have believed that I could learn to create a 3D VR environment that I could transfer to an Oculus headset.
And now, thinking back on my mental capacity, I realized that my burnout had turned my mind to jello. It was see-through, giggly, and bounced around everywhere. Now that I have removed myself from that lifestyle and now learn new things each day, my mind is dense, steady, and methodical. If I keep going this route (and I’m sure the ever-evolving computer science field will keep me on my toes), I will end up like the people who stay sharp throughout the last years of their life. They say you are as young as you feel. But I’m starting to realize, that you are as young as you think.
We are spending all-nighters getting projects done, and racing to the finish line for finals, but we are also exercising our brains, and learning new things as we go. We are doing the very thing that will keep us young in the long run, and we should enjoy it in the meantime. I do hope that our capstone project turns out the way we had hoped, and our efforts show how far we have come this quarter, but overall, I’ve been thankful for just being able to learn how to make a 3D VR simulation. Period. And this opportunity is one of a million more experiences that will push my brain to be harder, better, faster, stronger….all the ways that would make Daft Punk proud.
So take it all in, as for most of us, we are graduating soon. We didn’t just learn how to code, we also learned how to continuously exercise our minds and for some of us, re-learned how to love learning. It doesn’t stop at graduation. We are as young as we think, and we can stay that way for as long as we love to learn. So good luck fellow OSU students. Stay young. Go Coding.
Also, I remembered that I promised you pictures of my dogs. Here’s Inlé and Hazel, as promised.
