Today marks the fifth day of the second study break of my first semester in my first year at Curtin University, where I’m studying a Bachelor of Science (Computing) with an as yet undecided minor (I’m tossing up between Software Engineering and Cybersecurity).
It’s not a particularly special day, though it’s unseasonably warm here in Perth for late April, resting currently at a balmy 24 degrees. Perth’s reliable sky of blue is looming pleasantly over the city, punctuated by patches of thin white clouds. The murmur of a gentle breeze is accompanied by the persistent distant exhalation of tyres speeding across tarmac on a major road to the West.
The ever present sounds remind me of the passing of time – I’ve completed eight weeks of my course, and so far I’ve thoroughly enjoyed tackling the challenges that have been carefully placed in front of me. Yet still time marches forward, and it won’t be long before I’m sitting at my desk in mid-June, having completed my final semester exams.
So with that in mind, I want to remind myself of why I’m doing this and where I’m going.
I want to be an expert in this field – the field being somewhat unclear at this stage, but no doubt computer-related and heavily technical – and I want to succeed in a career that builds on the concepts I’m learning now.
I want to continue to embrace adversity, to learn from it and grow professionally and personally as a result. I’ve spoken previously about my concerns regarding the lack of adversity I face in day-to-day life, so it is important to me that I meet all challenges head-on.
I recently came across a website on setting up a keypair using the Gnu Privacy Guard program, and I was enthralled with the short bio on the person responsible for the page’s creation, one Alex Cabal. According to this page, in addition to this knowledge Cabal has created three other sites – Scribophile, Standard eBooks and Writerfolio, all of which are centered around the sanctity of the written word. My own struggles in reconciling my love for literature with my interest in IT provided a large part of the impetus for the creation of this blog, and to see someone use their technical gifts for the furtherance of these pursuits is both admirable and a welcome discovery.
I haven’t looked much deeper into these sites yet – a membership of at least one of them is on my short-term radar – but just the knowledge that such a person exists makes me feel something akin to relief. Perhaps one day, if all goes well, my own skills that I gain will be put to a similar use.
TJDempsey 