Blog Post 1 January 12th, 2024
Welcome, everyone, to the blog! My name is Brandon, and I am in my final stretch of classes at Oregon State in the Computer Science program. I never saw myself doing this sort of thing ten years ago when I first started college, as I changed my major four times in three years, ranging from Architecture to Theatre. Because of that, though, I joined the Air Force, learned Arabic, and have been working as an Arabic Linguist for the past decade. I got my BA in Arabic a few years ago but have decided on a career change when I separate from the military next year. Many of my colleagues are also doing similar degrees in software engineering, and after speaking with them and countless hours of research, I decided that this was something I had a newfound interest in. Two years later, and I am almost at the finish line! I could not be happier to embark on this new journey and to see what awaits me back in the civilian world. Prior to this program, I had no coding or software experience. I have always been good with science, math, and technology, and learning a language like Arabic has, in my opinion, really helped me in this program. Learning how to code really is very similar to learning a language, you have to deal with style, structure, and syntax, as well as combining words and phrases (or commands) to achieve a certain result – either a message conveyed, or a function executed. It is a fascinating parallel that I have had the privilege to experience. Outside of my linguist and school life, I enjoy reading and watching movies. I consider myself an amateur cinephile, and I attempt to watch as many releases each year as I can. Many of those hours watching movies or reading are with my wife and four dogs. We have four dachshunds – too many, I know. They just kept appearing in my house anytime my wife thought new friends were needed for the others. Luckily we have the disorder under control now and are enjoying life with all of them in Tucson, Arizona, where I am based. All in all, they and my wife have been very supportive the last couple years that I have been in the program. There have been long and stressful nights, and I am certainly glad to be close to the end, but I am glad to have done it. I love solving problems and creating new things – with which this program has certainly been a good challenge. I am particularly anticipating this capstone project, though I am not sure what it will be yet. I am hoping to be able to contribute to a mobile app project, which I have never done before. It will be a fun exercise to learn something new and to have a real project that I can be proud of. We will see how it goes, and I will update what that project is in my next post. Until then, happy coding!
