AP Computer Science Class Analysis

When I was making my schedule for my junior year of high school, it was no secret that AP Computer Science was the class I was really looking forward to taking. I had always been comfortable using a computer, whether it was fulfilling my role of unofficial Tech support for my family, browsing the internet, playing games, or any other of the numerous things I spent on a mouse and keyboard. I had always harbored a sense of wonderment on how it worked, and Computer Science offered me a way to explore just that.
The class did not disappoint. I went from not even knowing how to set up a project to debating how to best set up the board for a battleship game I was making with my teacher. One of the enjoyable parts of the class for me was that developing a program was not simply a question and answer process. It was a creative procedure that allowed you to have flexibility in how you solved a dilemma. Getting Karel J Robot to pick up all the beepers and exit on the other side of the maze was an exercise in critical thinking that I hadn’t been exposed to before in a classroom setting.
While I found other classes I’ve taken interesting, they didn’t leave me with the feeling that it was something I could see myself doing outside of a school setting. Computer Science was different, as it made me excited to learn more and expand what I can do within the field.
I’ve always had the same answer to the question of what I want to do when I’m grown up: “I don’t know, something I enjoy hopefully”. As overused as I think the saying is, the cliché saying of “Find something you enjoy doing, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life” does have some truth to it. Computer science is that thing I’ve found that I do truly enjoy, and getting into a career in it does fulfills the career goals I have for