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Growing up, we’ve been asked the question ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’. For some reason, kids always respond with exciting occupations. As you grow older, you tend to change your answer to more specialized (and more realistic) jobs – from fighter jet pilot to businessman, from explorer to engineer. But the thing is, although the glamour may have diminished, the sense of excitement and curiosity for the unknown shouldn’t have.
As for me, my leanings sided with the research and development side of things. I admit it may be boring to some, especially since it entails a whole lot of study and more study. But for some reason, I find science and technology really fascinating. I have this sense of wonder and curiosity that is really the core of all sciences – the thirst for understanding and clarity of how the world works.
I’m not saying I am the best of the best. I do not have high distinctions in all my subjects. But what I do have, I have in abundance – the need to learn new things, the love for problem solving, the fascination for new discoveries and the willingness to research. I think if not for these qualities, I wouldn’t have done well in my Electronic and Communications Engineering undergrad course back home. And I know I wouldn’t have had a good run here in Adelaide University if not for these as well.
Although I don’t show it, I have a light side to me as well. I love animals and kids. I have been keeping and breeding fish for years now. We have lots of dogs which I adore. The simplicity you get from focusing your energies in pets and seeing how they grow up and develop is one of the precious things in life money cannot buy.
As for kids, my entire undergraduate days were spent tutoring kids and/or playing with them. I think it is the humble interaction I like most. It’s fun seeing the development of kids you teach and play with (both intellectually and emotionally). But it’s also fun learning from them because you learn so much from their point of view. You also get to learn a lot about yourself like how you respond to pressure and responsibility and how you handle groups of people (of which kids are the messiest!).
On the nerdy side of things, I love programming. Although we really were not trained to be programmers, I love it. Although challenging, it is problem solving at its finest. And I simply love it. One story I have happened last year. There was a test that would certify you to be equivalent to an IT Engineer in Japan. Since Japan is one of the leaders in the industry, it was huge. One component of the test is analyzing code of which you chose between Java (familiar with it), C++ (coded with it), Assembly (studied it) and COBOL (unfamiliar territory). I chose COBOL and I passed! I’m not bragging but that’s a moment to remember for me. I guess I got lucky but I would like to think my love for code and my logic had something to do with it as well.
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