What are you most afraid of?
If there’s one thing that I could tell my high school self, it would be: “Don’t be afraid to try new things, even if you’re bad at it.”
Having graduated from one of the most competitive (yet sheltered) high schools in the nation, I had no idea what to expect in college. In high school, my largest passion outside of school was swimming. It gave me a drive and motivation to get out of bed with a goal in mind every morning. However, as my final high school swim season came to an end, so did much of my motivation. Still just a senior in high school, I felt a sense of dullness in my life and wondered if I would ever feel the same drive that I used to feel. Would I be able to find a new passion? Where will college take me?
As a high school senior, I knew that I needed to find a passion that will always push me to my full potential. Something that will always gives me the motivation to improve myself like swimming did in high school. Growing up in the heart of the Silicon Valley, one thing I came to realize is that technology is ever-growing. I thought that since technology never stays the same, it just might be what I’m looking for. This is what led me to choose computer science as my field of study at Cal Poly SLO.
“One thing I came to realize is that technology is ever-growing”
At first, I was unsure about whether I made the right choice because I didn’t have much prior experience in coding. I was afraid that everyone else would be better than me, leaving me in the dust. However, I came to acknowledge that not having this prior knowledge wasn’t a handicap — in fact, it was in many ways, an advantage. Sure, classes were tougher for me than many of the other students who have been coding for most of their lives. That only means the learning curve for me is that much steeper. With so much to learn and so much to improve on, my passion for my field of study took flight.
I aspired to explore as many aspects of computer science as I possibly could. Throughout my freshman year, I became a director of Cal Poly’s first ever hackathon club (SLO Hacks), co-founded an IEEE honor society chapter, and soon after the year ended, I found myself here in San Francisco as a software engineering intern at BeeHyve. Our mission at BeeHyve is to revamp education by connecting students around the world. Over the past couple of months, the team and I have built an active community of ten thousand students, sharing and utilizing student recommended resources for a large variety of computer science topics. This is the kind of change that I thrive for and makes me want to get out of bed every morning.
As my journey at BeeHyve wraps up, I’m excited to see what the future holds. Although I’ve learned more than I could ever hope for in the past couple of months, I know I’m just getting started. Working at a startup taught me that focus and hard work is the key to finding your passion. Next quarter, I’m taking an Object Oriented Programming course, and I’m looking forward to using the rapidly growing platform that I helped build.
I hope this helped someone, somewhere!
Best of luck, Justin
If you’re studying or interested in CS, checkout BeeHyve — www.beehyve.io. I’d love to hear what you think @BeeHyveBuzz on Twitter!
By Justin Mo, a rising computer science sophomore at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Connect with me through Linkedin, Facebook, and Email!
