A lot of my classes have have begun with the feeling that I am drinking from a firehose. The classes covered many topics and languages that were completely unfamiliar to me, and the content was rapidly spewed forth with assignments due in short time frames. I have to admit that it took a lot of adaptation to learn how to drink from the firehose without injury. I also have to admit that I did not enjoy learning to do this and would have much preferred some other way. In fact, there were times when I was not sure I was up to the task, but somehow I have always managed to make it through.

I think the ability to drink from a firehose is the most important thing that I have learned in my course of study at OSU. To me, drinking from a firehose is the ability to learn completely new things in a short time. It also means not trying to master a particular language or skill set, because those things are constantly changing. Drinking from a firehose means learning new languages and skills in short order and doing it on my own. This course has given me the confidence to know that I can pickup whatever new language, framework, model, etc. that is required.

As I begin the Capstone project, I can tell that I will need to do a lot of research and learn new skills, but this does not intimidate me. I know how to drink from a firehose.