Throughout my years of engineering, I've thought about this question a countless number of times. “Why did I decide to study engineering?” In part, it could have been because of all the promises of riches and glory that the life of an engineer brings, that we were told as kids in this country. How ironic it is to have such a multitude of engineers in a place so annoyingly under-engineered! I digress, sorry. That topic in itself deserves to be expounded upon in a series of articles.
So, was it for the riches? I don‘t know. I don’t think so.
Whenever I try to think back to the times when I was a kid and my mind wasn't encumbered with illusions of reality, I realize that maybe this was the person I was meant to be from the get go. Right from the very beginning, I was interested in understanding how things (anything and everything) worked!
It began with my fascination with car engines, my first ‘Mechanix’ toy kit and the rabbit hole just kept on going deeper and deeper…
How did a switch make the fan go round? Why does turning the knob make it go faster? How did the hairdresser‘s spray turn water into that fine, cool mist? What made aeroplanes fly? What exactly is ’fire' and why is it the way it is?
I can‘t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t pursuing one such curiosity or another. Like I said, I guess I was plonked into this world as a tinker destined to become an engineer some day. That unending desire to figure out the nuts and bolts of everything. When computers came along, I was naturally taken in by the wonders of this magical device that could make a turtle#Turtle_and_graphics) draw all forms of shapes and figures by the command of a few words! That fascination sowed the seeds of what was to become my decision to study Computer Science at college.
Somewhere during my first year though, I forgot about all of this. I think it was a fear of commitment that gripped me. Or maybe a nagging voice inside that kept telling me that I hadn‘t even been exposed to all that was ’out there‘ and all I could be. Four years of stumbling and wandering have brought me to this point where I’m once again aware of who I am.
And I am not afraid.