After a couple of years in the Computer Science program at Baylor, I had a fairly decent GPA to show for, but it was lacking because I did not devote the time necessary to my studies. When I got to the upper level courses, I spent so much time playing video games and chasing girls, that procrastinating in my classes overwhelmed me; trying to write a program in one night that I was given a month to complete was almost impossible. I got by for a couple of semesters doing this while working on a minor in Mathematics. Eventually, I was doing so horrible in Computer Science that I gave up and switched my major to Math.
I thought things would be different, but the cycle repeated itself shortly after changing my major; I was five years into undergrad with no degree to show for. At roughly the same time, I met the girl of my dreams who helped me just plain grow up. All of a sudden, I had a new look on life and prepared myself to go back to school last Fall to finish up strongly. Because I had exhausted a lot of my financial aid after this long of being in school, my only option was to get a full-time job while finishing school; keep in mind, my major at this time was Math.
In walks a little disease called Mononucleosis that ruined the above plans; not only could I not get a job, I could not get out of bed long enough to sit through a class. This kept me in bed for several weeks, so much that I was forced to withdraw from Baylor. After I recovered, I was very scared that I’d never complete my degree, now that I have the motivation and work-ethic to do so.
I got hired on by Baylor’s Electronic Libraries department to fill a temporary role as a Web Programmer until December 1, but I had some difficulty finding a job after that. During Christmas break, I met up with some old friends; one of them knew of a job opening as a Software Developer at his best friend’s workplace. Shortly after the New Year, I got this job.
To sum up everything since January, I filled an entry-level position; shortly after, another guy that had been there for a while got fired. I stepped up and filled his role. Not too long after that, my boss quit. The company did not want to spend a few months trying to find someone to take his position and learning the product after being hired. Again, I stepped up and filled this role; now I am one of two Senior Developers. It was a lot of Trial by Fire, but I worked harder than I ever have before to get the job done.
The owner of the company I work for suggested I transfer to University of Texas at Arlington to finish up my degree and offered to pay for it; UTA is about five minutes away from where I work. This is a very tempting offer, but to be honest, I would rather complete my degree at Baylor, since I met so many friends here and frankly spent so much money here. Baylor is my home.When I changed my major to Math, I was feeling burnt out in Computer Science because of two classes — Database Design and Principles of Software Design. It is a bit ironic, but essentially what I do every day is use the information I learned in those two classes; now, I LOVE IT! It comes down to I got tired of computers and programming; I was then forced to go back to these to make a living, and I fell back in love with Computer Science in general.
I hate that my last two or three semesters were so horrible, but I have learned to learn from my past rather than to regret my past.
UTA is an option for me, but I would prefer Baylor, which I hope is obvious.
Sic ‘em, Bears.