WP4

For WP4, I want you to REFLECT on your writing journey this semester and discuss what you’ve DISCOVERED, specifically, the ROLE WRITING has played in teaching you _________________________ about YOU. HOW? WHY?

Writing this semester about my intellectual journey and identity led to me thinking about my current plans for college, what I want to do in the future, and how both of those connected with who I was as a learner. More specifically, I learned about how my creativity and curiosity led me to pursue computer science. Furthermore, I also learned how these two traits emerged from my ADHD and the boredom that comes with it. By discovering this link between ADHD and computer science, I was able to validate my choice of computer science and continue on this path.

For WP1, I thought about a important experience that contributed to who I am now intellectually: programming. In doing so, I reflected upon what programming really meant to me. I’ve always known that programming to me was a entertaining hobby, but I never thought about WHY I liked programming; it was something I had never seemed to question. However, after this period of reflection, I learned that I liked programming because of my how it lets me express my creativity and gives me opportunities to solve fun problems. Programming let me express my creativity through a unique medium, which included problem solving and critical thinking, two other things that I had liked my entire life.

While creating WP2, I went through a great amount of books that I’ve read, and tried to select ones that felt special to my intellectual identity. What would usually happen is that I would take a good book that I remember fondly, but I couldn’t force myself to add it to the archive. A lot of the books I read felt like optional sprinkles of flavor to who I was as a thinker, not foundational to it. Through much consideration, I was only able to add five books that I strongly felt impacted me. Then, grouping the books together, I sought to find a common twine that connected all of them. I found was one that they all revolved around the science: the pursuit of it, its positive impacts, and its negative consequences. With the unique perspective each book presented science, I was able to gain a breadth view of what science was, why it was interesting, and why it was important.

Through this reflection, I learned and understood about WHY I liked science: it was the process of exploration and curiosity that one had to undertake to explore and discover something new. I had always been curious about things, so this makes sense linking my curiosity with science. It is a natural bond. And it was partly because of my interest in science that I chose to do computer science, as it included both programming, something creative, and science, something exploratory.

For WP3, through more reflection and introspection, I was able to learn about the origin of the two virtues, curiosity and creativity, that caused me to like computer science. I learned that these traits stemmed from my ADHD and boredom. I was pushed to explore because I was bored. I strove to create because I was bored. And through this linking, I learned about the link and effects my ADHD had on my passions, and therefore my choice to pursue computer science.

Also, over the semester I learned some lessons about overcoming my constant writers block. Through some experimentation with my writing workflow over the semester, I discovered that the way that I am able to produce the fastest and most quality work is to just type now and revise later, without worrying about how good or bad my writing is in the moment.

Before this semester, my usual workflow would look something like this: I would open up a new page, think about all the possible perfect sentences I could write for 20 minutes, then write it, then repeat. I didn’t put too much emphasize on revising because I tried to write everything perfect the first time. I also kept all my ideas in my head, in the process of trying to form perfect ones, instead of writing all of them down into an outline or brainstorming document. This urge to be perfect when writing caused me to write very slowly and sometimes nothing at all. In the worst case scenario, I couldn’t think of anything good to write and I felt uncomfortable writing something that felt subpar. In one of of my most passionate Medium posts I describe my previous view of writing well, “I like to think about the process of writing like climbing a mountain. Entirely uphill. Grueling. Tedious. The only respites along the route are few and far between. Completing a first/second/etc. draft is like finally reaching a camp along the way; it is a good place to rest and recover. And there is that magnificent feeling of satisfaction, of achievement, once you finally reach the end. Finishing a piece of writing is akin to reaching the summit.” (Horgen, 2020) Essays and large writing projects were my Himalayas, and I took a long time to climb them.

Now, I just stream my consciousness to the paper, not carrying about spelling or grammar or whatever. I make sure the only task I’m focused on is to write down what I’m thinking. I found this works really well for overcoming the type of writers block I usually have when I’m scared to write stuff out of the fear that it will be bad. After my initial writing and when all my ideas are on the paper, albeit scattered and jumbled with other words, I would then do my revisions. And each revision would separate and filter out the good ideas from the bad and rearrange them into something comprehensible.

This semester has taught me important things about who I am as a writer, and who I am as an intellectual being. I’m sure I will bring the skills I learned about writing to whatever places I go in the future, as writing is applicable anywhere and everywhere. Also, the discoveries I’ve made about myself as a thinker/intellectual will help me navigate my path into the future in regards to computer science and whatever I ultimately choose to pursue.

Sources:

https://horgen.medium.com/my-struggle-with-writing-bc81b8dcd2db