I have never been good at regular event recording, let alone blogging. I am not great at keeping up with social media, journaling, even taking pictures. But, I’ve decided that my yearly theme will be “Adapting to Change,” so I welcome the chance to be forced to try something new.

I have gotten a bit ahead of myself; let me step back a bit.

My name is Nick Lanners. I have started this blog as part of my Capstone Project for my Computer Science degree through Oregon State University. This blog is originally designed to help me talk through and chronicle my journey and development process through this final project.

I, currently, have no plans of sharing this with my network of acquaintances, but if anyone stumbles across this, I hope that I can help make your time here somewhat enjoyable. Let me give some background to myself and how I got here.

At the time of writing, I currently teach Band and Choir to 8th and 9th grade public school students. I have been in this profession for 10 years now. In that time there have been ups and downs, successes and failures. Overall, I have enjoyed myself. I love the intricacies of instrumental and vocal music, and being able to share this love with young people has been a joy, most of the time. A couple years ago, however, I hit a point where I had to make a fairly big decision: do I finally get my Master’s degree in Music/Education/Something-Else-Related and basically commit myself to staying in this profession for another 20 years, or do I do something else?

If you have lived in the United States over the last decade, perhaps you’ve noticed the plight in which our public schools find themselves. My own State and local governments and school district have made several sweeping decisions in this time that have made the jobs of educators more restrictive, less rewarding, and, overall, more of a bummer. Along with this, it seems that our current American culture has lost any trust or belief in the expertise of professional educators such that students come into the classroom setting without a respect for the idea of education, let alone any intrinsic reason to try to improve their mind or abilities in any way. There are many possible causes for this, but that is a discussion for another place and time.

Suffice it to say that I had decided to, instead of commit to a graduate degree, give myself an escape plan, should the need arise. Just after I was accepted into OSU’s E-Campus program, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. In the beginning, this was a great boon to me, as I was able to start my schooling (something that I hadn’t done in a decade) during the initial lockdowns, without having to juggle teaching in the most hectic time of the year (4th quarter) and learning an entirely new profession. Just over two years later, here we are.

Largely, I have enjoyed my time in this program. I have developed new skills with various coding languages. I have been challenged mentally and creatively throughout the various projects for my courses. Over the last two years, I have often had times of uncertainty: Is this worth the time and money? What am I actually going to do when I’ve finished? Can I actually leave teaching? These questions have weighed on me, and still do. As stated earlier, this is my year of “Adapting to Change,” and there are not many bigger changes than one of career.

One of the most interesting lessons I have learned was not one that was taught by the professors. I find that programming/coding/developing has a way of fulfilling me both mentally and creatively. Many people have been surprised when I say this. Mental fulfillment makes sense: coding is a very logical process which many people find mentally taxing. But creative fulfillment? I find coding an especially creative endeavor. When beginning a project, one starts with nothing except a blank text editor. With a few words and a bit of logic, just about anything can be created. I have been amazed by how quickly I can fall into a “zone” and work for hours without feeling tired, getting more energized as each iteration of a project improves and problems get solved. Once I’ve hit a “complete” state, I am astounded when I look at the mix of files and functions that I’ve written out. What used to be nothing, is now something. I imagine this is what authors feel when they’ve completed a book, or visual artists when they have filled a canvas.

So, here we are. If you have made it this far (if I may borrow the cliché), I hope you have not been too bored by my ramblings. I can not guarantee it will get any more interesting from this point. The blog is called “Learning Lessons with Lanners,” meaning that I will try to write some lessons, about anything, that I’ve learned through this Capstone Project. Over the next 10 weeks or so, I hope to have some sort of coherent chronicle. We shall see how successful that desire proves. For now, I wish thee a wonderful day.

And so it begins…