Evolution of a Mindset by Carter

Evolution of a Mindset by Carter - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

When I was six, I wanted to be a train engineer when I grew up. Of course, as I grew older, I realized while that trains were, and still are cool, spending my life on the railroad was not for me. Instead, I set my sights on becoming an author and illustrator, two passions of mine that could be combined into a single career.

For four or five years, I studied art and writing, taking courses on literature, painting and drawing. I wrote a few sample book excerpts and painted several oil paintings. And then when I was 14 years old, I discovered the Maker community. It's essentially a culture of DIY-minded people who prefer to invent, design and produce their own products instead of just letting the large corporations do it instead.

I have always been very big into computers and technology my entire life, so realizing that I had the opportunity to build them myself was a life-changer for me, literally. I began to move away from writing and illustrating and focused more on computer engineering and graphics. Now, at 17, I'm ready to enter college and work towards earning my bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering. Funny how your expectations of what you'll do when you grow up change so great, from trains to writing to computers.