Throughout my life, I have endeavored to seek answers beyond my own experiences and have tried to assist others as they venture into their own strange territories of learning. Inquisitive and curious, my four year old bespectacled face was always pressed into a book, intently reading and learning more about the world. I amassed hundreds of books of which I read repeatedly, giving me a jump start on my learning process, one that few others had. Whenever I discovered something new, I would continuously strive to untangle every web it contained until I understood it forwards and back. This great affinity for reading was only trumped by my ever growing passion for computers. A subtle introduction to the computing world via educational games uncovered a world of vast proportions, one which to this day I am still exploring.
My child-like interest was initially intrigued by the bright flashy colors and the interaction I had with the game, but once I discovered the world outside the game, the world with which the game was built upon, my viewpoint on technology changed. From that point on, whenever I obtained some new electronic gadget, my first instinct was to peruse every last menu and option forward and backward until I could essentially remake it. At that point however, the extent of my exploring was limited to a right and left click, my computer skills at the most beginning of levels.
I was able to quickly comprehend complex concepts from the computer and literary world which one would not expect from a child my age, and once learned, I made sure to share it with others. While children were struggling to read while a teacher feigned support, I made sure to help out my friends and push them along the path. Many friends at school to this day refer to me as, “that kid who taught me how to read”, in a joking yet endearing manner. My nose took up residence buried in a book most of my childhood, from adventure novels to books about technology. I also brought from home my ever increasing interest and knowledge of computers, where just as I had taught the other children to read, I gave them a jumpstart on their computer literacy. In the classroom we started using a program called Micro worlds, a piece of programming software for the utmost beginner programming mind such as ours. The teacher, explaining how to move the object forward and backward became frustrated as I made a turtle go on an adventure with various shapes and colors, advanced topics that would not be introduced for weeks. Not to say that I got in trouble constantly for racing ahead of the class, but when I found the time I would explore the subject matter to its extent.
Soon, a new world of technology opened up to me, robotics. Initially, the only robotics I had experienced was a children’s modular robotics set that I used as a child, but soon, Lego robotics became available to me at school. During class, our teacher introduced these blocks, similar to the normal Lego blocks we had...