What Does Computing Mean To Me?

Until this semester, I haven’t really stopped to think about what computing means to me. Computing has been really eye-opening for me because I can now understand various aspects of a computer’s inner workings, and not only that, but I’m actually interested in it. Physical computing is an especially interesting part of that because it enables us to create virtual programs that can respond to our physical world.

Before last year, I hadn’t had any experience with coding, and as a freshman, I never thought I would minor in Interactive Media. Frankly, I didn’t even know what it was. I didn’t know that I would be able to code on my own or that I would be able to understand the way some programming languages work. Simply, I never thought that my interests would overlap with coding. I always thought coding was rigid, mysterious, difficult–and that you had to have a talent for it. I didn’t know you could create art using code. Just two days ago, I was going through my inbox, and I found an e-mail that I had sent in the 6th grade to my IT teacher with my homework submission. That week, we learned to create our first basic HTML webpage, where we were asked to write a short description of ourselves: 

Aside from having to encounter my terrible grammar and color scheme or having to read about my strange obsession with Oreos, seeing this page made me think about how that was my first and last encounter with coding–until I took my first Interactive Media class just a year ago.

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