Expand Your Social Web by Daryl

Expand Your Social Web by Daryl - May 2014 Scholarship Essay

I usually chuck the useless platitudes and banal sayings people tell me like "work hard" or "Just do it, and you'll get it" into the garbage can of worthless advice regarding studying. But, just recently, I experienced the result of "expanding your social web," as in: making new friends. I am a computer science major and it was never my intention to pursue a degree in computer science when I was a kid. I wanted to be a lawyer just like my dad, who at the time was not a lawyer yet. Things got rocky with my parents and they ended up divorcing each other. As I was living with my mom, my passion to become a lawyer dwindled to an ember and eventually extinguished because my dad was not around to motivate and inspire me to follow my goal.

Come two years after community college, and I change my major from International Business to Computer Science. Why computer science? I read an article that said this country, the U.S., is going to need lots of people with computer science degrees, so I said, "Alright, this seems like a safe enough major." and chose it. What did I know about computers? Nothing much except how to use the keyboard and search the internet. That was it!

I didn't give up, though, because I knew that after sacrificing my time and youth for learning how to program and learning the "why"s and "how"s of it all, I would end up at the finish line with my three-story house and future wife and kids and a big smile on my face.

But what happens when I cannot figure an algorithm out in the most efficient way myself? To whom do I turn? I could turn to my professor, but what if she is busy the entire day? Whom do I ask, then? Friends! Classmates! Acquaintances! It is ruthless out in the world of individualism. Society, today, hails individuality and encourages it. Although it is important to learn to take care of oneself by cooking and washing one's own clothes, who will be there to lift your spirits up when you are feeling the blues? I cannot rely on me to always pick myself up if I was feeling down because I am only human, and humans need each other for support when their cards are stacked against them. Even when it comes to coding.

I just experienced this when I felt like a piece of gum under a restaurant table. I could not figure out how to write a certain type of algorithm and I was moping over it. The next day, I went up to one of my classmates who I talk and share laughs with regularly and asked to see his code. He was more than welcome to show me his code! I was blown away by his reaction! I then thought about what one of my professors said to me: Expand your social web. Just like how the spider grows his web with each individual thread, I must too do the same if I want to succeed in my future career.

Not only will expanding your social web help with feeling supported and secure, it can also pay off if you are having trouble with a certain piece of code.