My name is Kevin O’Brien, and I have recently graduated from the University at Buffalo with a B.A. in Physics. Having spent 3 years learning the ins and outs of classical mechanics, electrodynamics, and getting an introduction to quantum mechanics, I develloped a strong enjoyment for the mindset of being a physics student. To me that often involved sitting around for hours trying to brainstorm a solution to a single problem, and though I enjoyed the process of learning about the fundamental laws of the universe, I knew that I would not be the next Einstein, and that I did not necessarily want to go further into the field of physics.
Though I no longer wanted to continue with my major, the problem solving methods that I had endured for the past three years became routine, and I realized that I needed something intellectually stimulating in my life to avoid becoming stagnant and losing my drive to create and develop. For that reason, I decided to expand my horizons, and begin learning software engineering.
Over the past three weeks or so of beginning to code in Ruby through the software engineering course, I have encountered a world of new knowledge that I hardly knew existed. Having minimal code experience at the outset of the course, I was not aware of the massive range of applications that coding permitted. At first the idea of creating anything of use felt incredibly intimidating, and like it was some bridge that I would not be able to traverse. However, through the lessons I feel more confident in my abilities, and hope to grow as a coder at an even more rapid rate!