<p>I know it needs a lot of work probably but that's why I'm asking for help....</p>
<pre><code>Coming from an average and typical high school in the central valley of California, I do not have interests similar to those of many students in my school and area. Many of my peers are involved in FFA, have dreams of pursuing the biological and agricultural sciences, or have no interest at all! But for me and a few others in my area, we have a much different interest: we want to comprehend exactly what is happening in any event. This event could be something ordinary like figuring out the most efficient route to school in the morning; this event could also be something more complex and not completely obvious like the intricacies behind wireless communication. It is an appetite that goes unsatisfied from simple answers that I often receive from my parents and most others in my area.
But I was not always aware that I had this interest. Before high school, What I enjoyed doing was no different than that of anyone else. I was as close to ordinary as possible, but when freshman year came around, I took an elective called Computer Programming. Little did I know that although this wasn't an AP class, it would have the most influence on my life that any class would ever have in high school. It quickly became the class that I looked forward to come to every day. As you'd suspect from anyone who enjoys doing an activity,I took this interest to another level; I downloaded the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment onto my own computer at home. Over the course of the next few years, I learned more at home each week than I would in the class in the entire year. Even though it wasn't the class that had a direct impact on me, it sparked an interest in me than allowed me to discover a way of thinking that I loved so much. This way of thinking that I found so much satisfaction in also prompted me to grow a love for the beauty of mathematics which I indulged in for the next three years. I guess you could describe the feeling I get from the above as an escape from reality, similar to how many describe reading books as their escapes from reality. You know how people say they feel like they are in a different universe while reading a great novel? Well that's me, but I don't have a book in my hand. My entire life I have heard about these super "rad" inventions and ideas that Apple, Tesla, and Google keep churning out. At the same time I have been asking myself, "How can this possibly be programmed?", or "How does this work?" These questions are usually pondered for a few minutes and I eventually realize that even with the amount I have learned these past few years, comprehending something is simply impossible without the proper knowledge and education to do so; regardless of this realization, I continue to ask questions as if one day I will finally understand.This is a frustrating and recurring problem that troubles me daily.
To me, a key on a keyboard represents much more than a letter. I like to think the tool received its name because each button, in the most literal and figurative sense, is a ticket to the doorway of possibility. The board itself is a trick, a testament to the magic that surrounds modern technology. You see the same magic trick enough times you start asking the big questions, how and why? Yes, an electrical circuit is being completed and a message is sent to the computer to write the letter "s" on your monitor. But how exactly does your computer interpret this signal? How is a physical, electrical signal transformed into something that is interpretable by a computer? And how does the computer know which pixels to activate so that the user of the computer can understand what is being processed? It is mind boggling to think of all the electronic processes that we encounter every day, and most of us not once question these processes that are occurring. To me, using a device without understanding its intricacies is like using a mathematical formula without understanding the logic and reasoning behind it; it makes me feel guilty, and I can't stand not knowing.
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