Where Do I Go From Here?

I have learned a lot about Computer Science in my first semester. I realized there are a lot of jobs out there for Computer Scientists. In almost every field there is technology that is ever growing, so there are a lot of job opportunities to choose from when I graduate. I'm still not sure what I want to do with myself when I graduate. I know I want to do something with programming, I'm just not sure what. It would be really interesting to work on the latest technology to further space exploration or the medical field. Although I would probably be happy just solving problems with programming in most any job. I've noticed a lot of people around me wanting to go into cyber security and I don't think that is something I want to do. My plan as of now, is to get a programming job and program for years and years and then maybe work my way up to a management position. Although that is a very loose plan.

There were a lot of topic in my intro to computer science class that I really enjoyed, a few of my favorites were how graphics have improved and the history of video games. I love seeing graphics for games and movies improve over the years and become more and more realistic.  It was really fascinating to see how the graphics are made and different kinds of graphics.One  thing I found really cool is why people use ping pong balls to record movements for CGI. The ping pong ball has a set diameter and you can track the ball to see how close or far it is to track movement. The history of video games was just really fun to know about, and I actually didn't know a lot of what I was taught. Like how Nintendo was originally a card company. 

I am going to continue taking computer classes to finish my Computer Science degree, my next class in CIS 300. It is a harder programming class than the one I am currently in, and uses C# and visual studios unlike Java that I have been mainly using. The switch from Java to C# has not been to hard, the languages are fairly similar and only a few commands have been changed. I'm not sure what classes past that I need to take but I'm looking forward to learning it. As of right now I still prefer Java, mostly because I've been having some major problems getting Visual Studios to work, but I'm sure once I do I won't hate it anymore. One thing I'm excited about when I finally finish the classes that I'm required to take, like chemistry and calculus, so I can focus on computer classes.

Out of all the textbooks I really enjoyed Pattern On The Stone, it was the easiest to pick up and read in my opinion and was really interesting to read. One of the most helpful chapters was the Algorithms chapter, which helped me understand algorithms really well. We also ended up touching on algorithms in a lot of topics and assignments, so I went back to that chapter a few times.

Being also an artist, I'm really drawn to video games and how they are made. I'm not sure if I would want to make one myself but it seems like a really fun and interesting project to work on. Maybe in the future I can use my artistic skills as well as my programming skills in my future career. 

I'm going to miss this class, as I learned a lot and just generally had a good time being in class.