Thoughts on my upcoming education

In a few months I will hop in a car with my dad and drive to Scotland. Upon arrival I will be setting foot In a country I have never been in before and at the same time initiating a four year long stay in said country. About a year ago I made the huge decision of accepting my offer to a place at a Scottish university - a huge leap of faith for me. Not only the choice of University is a big step for me - also the subject I have chosen to study. I can make a confession right here and right now - I have not done much programming or computer science work at all. All I got is some very fundamental knowledge of C++ and some experience working with HTML/CSS (which can't be labeled as programming, according to many). I know I am not in any way screwed because of this - there are many who study computer science with no prior programming experience what so ever. This is not my main concern though. My concern is - if I'm going to work with computer science for the rest of my life while enjoying it and simultaneously producing quality work - I must have a passion for the subject. To be completely honest - since I don't have much experience with programming I am in no way sure I will develop such a passion (or even a strong enough interest). The next logical question a reader might pose is: Why did you chose this subject when you are not sure you are ready to work with computer science for the rest of your life?

The answer to that question is twofold:
a) I know I'm interested to a certain degree. I'm the kind of applicant who simply enjoys sitting at the computer and using it - I constantly find my self being interested in the inner workings of the machine and the software I use. When I play video games I don't just enjoy the video games I play - I also ponder on things you could do to improve the experience. The same goes for much of the software I use. The thing is - that's software design I'm thinking about, it doesn't mean I will enjoy programming.
b) I realized I couldn't be completely sure - I'm taking a risk and stepping outside my boundaries with this choice. Previous experience I have tells me that method can be the way to go - at least I know I will push my self to my limits and possibly beyond which will result in me gaining lots of knowledge - which is always good.


I always strive to perform as well as possible and I want to accomplish as much as possible. When I look at people who have accomplished great things in the field of computer science all I see is "he/she started programming at the age of 10 and built his first video game at age 12". I never had the drive to program at that age - can I still become a quality programmer? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

This post vaguely leads in to the topic of my next blog which will be "approaching learning of a subject as a novice". I will present my thoughts on my success and hardship trying to approach programming during the summer leading up to my education in September.

First post.

Hi there. This is my first post in this blog. In fact, it’s the first piece of writing that I have ever published online, ever. While I have done writing before, mostly in school, I have never written anything with the intent of putting it somewhere where it’s free for everyone to see. I don’t know what has stopped me before – probably laziness or some unconscious notion of not being comfortable with having thoughts being exposed in the open. But I figured: why not push my boundaries and see what happens? So here it goes – welcome to my blog.

I’m thinking it might be appropriate for me to introduce myself here on the blog. I’m a 20 year old male currently living in Sweden. I am due to start studying at a university in Scotland in a few months, which means I’m going to be put in a situation I've certainly never have been before. Hopefully I’ll be experiencing a lot of things I've never experienced before – exciting. As for my situation at this moment – I’m working some low-wage jobs while waiting for my last summer vacation before university to kick off. I have an itching feeling that this summer is going to be the last part of an era in my life (cliche, I know): with me going abroad in a couple of months, I feel like me and my closest social circle will inevitably drift apart. I realize this is something that’s probably very common – not a positive thought still.

Enough with this boring format of first posts! The next entry will be more in line with the general idea I have for this blog – short to medium length entries focusing on thought-provoking or interesting topics mainly focusing on the areas of learning from a novice’s perspective, computer science, video games and tidbits of debate-friendly topics snapped from the current news stream. See you next time!