When Steve Jobs mentioned the saying “stay hungry, stay foolish”, it left an impression on me. It goes back to all of the life advices and themes I learned as I grew up. I had a deep curiosity in technology as far back as I can remember. I wondered why VHS tapes got replaced by DVDs, or why the computer monitor got thinner as the years passed. My curiosity took me to follow what I thought was interesting, and to start delving into the tech world. The moment you know that something strikingly interests you is when you know that you are “hungry”. You want to keep “eating” or learning about what you love to do. That’s exactly what I did, but life is a bumpy road.
As a child, I was a shy person who didn’t open up too much. I tried to act like a normal kid who blended in with everyone. We all know that conforming to society creates no individuality from Brave New World. Stereotypically, I thought that it was bad to be geeky and like all the high tech stuff. As I entered high school, I came to slowly realize that it’s good to be unique and stand out in your own way. I began to open up more to others and share my passion. This is when “stay foolish” comes into play, in that you shouldn’t follow a dogmatic system. It’s okay to be different and not follow what people think to be the “smart choice”. “Stay foolish” and create your own path instead of following one already made. However, as an ambitious student preparing to get into college, it was not easy to focus just on your passion. Homework, sports, work, volunteer, etc all turned my focus away from my passion, but nevertheless I still made time to learn about technology.
When senior year came, my course into learning changed directions. As a student who likes to succeed in everything, having a high level of trust from a teacher was something that I deserved. Everybody deserves to do what they love (assuming it creates some form of value for others), so having this high level of trust was something we deserve as students. It felt very unusual to be given so much trust from a teacher who barely knew us in the beginning of the year. In the end, being given this trust was an important first step into our individual masterpieces.
The idea of presenting a unique masterpiece in class was something that allowed me to explore my learning in ways I could not do before. The open source structure allowed me to easily collaborate and produce works that I couldn’t have by myself. I planned the biggest project I had done in my life by going to a large museum. Following through and making a video from what I and Jared saw was no easy task, but we were successful. Before the trip to the Computer History Museum, all of my learning of tech was from online sources, devices at home, and strolling through Best Buy. It was a cool experience to see history’s most influential devices from the punch card computer to Intel’s 4004 in real life.
Before seeing everyone’s masterpieces, I didn’t expect to learn so much from others. I honestly thought that it would be boring presentations that the audience would have to sit through, but everyone’s masterpiece left a positive impression in me. A common theme that I found in all of the masterpieces were that each one was meaningful in its own way, and not just something put together for a grade. For example, I personally don’t have much interest into playing music, but I easily felt the meaning of playing your own music. As for the presenters, everyone had a lot of personal stories to tell and how it connects to their masterpiece. Also, the presentations felt very natural as if were trained to give a good presentation. Some people who usually don’t show much emotion or gives a rather boring presentation seemed a lot more interesting and enthusiastic.The specific hand gestures and facial expressions made were direct translations of their passion.
As a self reflection, I have espoused learning. I love that moment where two things you thought were unrelated connects. I especially love learning about computers because it is the foundation for much of the world’s daily tasks. It influences us so much in ways we won’t think because it’s a standard. However, I find computing fascinating because I can do so many different tasks with it and create almost anything virtual. I love using a computer, building it, and researching what’s coming next in tech. in that sense, I would like to say that I am still in the hero’s journey, because a journey shouldn’t end this quick. I have had a successful year with my masterpiece, but really I think that it’s part of a longer journey, with larger challenges to conquer.
No comments:
Post a Comment