(no subject)
So...wow...I haven't updated in ages. I kept on meaning to but got sidetracked and all...you know how it goes. :-P But thanks to a little kick in the butt from Melissa, I am back on track...sort of. ;)
I'm back in Pittsburgh, of course...started college almost a month ago, though it doesn't feel like it's that long. But, I can also feel the semester going by pretty quickly...so it's a bit of a conundrum. But anyway, so many changes have been happening this year, it's almost unbelievable. I seem to always have that every few years--a complete rediscovery of myself and perhaps even more confidence from that rediscovery.
One of the main realizations I've come to is that I am pretty sure I no longer want to pursue Computer Science as my career path (and as my major), and instead I want to go into elementary education. Why such a change you ask? Well, I will tell you. :-P First, I've always really wanted to teach...ever since I was in elementary school myself, I always envisioned myself as a teacher. However, over time, as I continued to enjoy computers, I assumed that is what I wanted to for the rest of my life. A few weeks before going back to college, Allison (a friend from HS and who also goes to Pitt) mentioned to me that one of her friends is doing elementary education...and that sort of re-implanted the idea in my head and made me begin thinking again of pursuing that as a career. So, since then, after a good deal of thought--though certainly I still need to do a lot more investigation but I'm pretty confident in my decision--I have been working towards figuring out how to go about switching from CompSci over to elementary education. I've spoken with a lot of people from the School of Education and just been doing a whole lot of overall thinking. The unfortunate part is I won't be able to graduate when I originally intended to, but it won't be more than a semester or two extra (for undergrad...I'll have a couple more years afterwards for graduate school.) I've also been trying to decide on a major to take instead of Computer Science...since elementary education isn't actually a major I need to have some kind of undergraduate major. I've been thinking of Applied Developmental Psychology, since it has a lot to do with children and would give me the opportunity to do curriculum development in addition to teaching, if I decide I want to do that. I do, however, have to apply to the School of Education (just as if I'm applying to college again), but the criteria isn't overly high so hopefully I should be okay. I also am going to hopefully start some tutoring, to get some first-hand experience with "teaching" children. So...yeah...that's one major change that is still unraveling.
Another major event is that I have gotten drunk! ;) Two Saturdays ago my friend Melissa had a party and a few people...Suzi, Sara, Lauren...from the CWO were there, along with some other friends of Melissa. It was absolute fun. :D We played Cranium and I did a whole bunch of charades-type things...including a very nice rendition (if I may so say myself) of the phrase "saved by the bell", while almost crashing into the sink. ;) I was a bit sick but not too bad...and Melissa treated me to a very nice post-hangover breakfast at Pamela's, which has awesome breakfast food. :)
Since then, I've been hanging out with Melissa and Suzi a lot (tons of fun!) and trying to get back into the whole school/homework mood, though not being entirely successful. :-P I've also hung out with Colin a bit and that's been fun. :)
Also, my Vegas pictures (and soon some random pictures of Pittsburgh!) are online at http://gallery.sector001.org/. Go check out my crappy photography skills! ;)
More to come, for sure...
I'm back in Pittsburgh, of course...started college almost a month ago, though it doesn't feel like it's that long. But, I can also feel the semester going by pretty quickly...so it's a bit of a conundrum. But anyway, so many changes have been happening this year, it's almost unbelievable. I seem to always have that every few years--a complete rediscovery of myself and perhaps even more confidence from that rediscovery.
One of the main realizations I've come to is that I am pretty sure I no longer want to pursue Computer Science as my career path (and as my major), and instead I want to go into elementary education. Why such a change you ask? Well, I will tell you. :-P First, I've always really wanted to teach...ever since I was in elementary school myself, I always envisioned myself as a teacher. However, over time, as I continued to enjoy computers, I assumed that is what I wanted to for the rest of my life. A few weeks before going back to college, Allison (a friend from HS and who also goes to Pitt) mentioned to me that one of her friends is doing elementary education...and that sort of re-implanted the idea in my head and made me begin thinking again of pursuing that as a career. So, since then, after a good deal of thought--though certainly I still need to do a lot more investigation but I'm pretty confident in my decision--I have been working towards figuring out how to go about switching from CompSci over to elementary education. I've spoken with a lot of people from the School of Education and just been doing a whole lot of overall thinking. The unfortunate part is I won't be able to graduate when I originally intended to, but it won't be more than a semester or two extra (for undergrad...I'll have a couple more years afterwards for graduate school.) I've also been trying to decide on a major to take instead of Computer Science...since elementary education isn't actually a major I need to have some kind of undergraduate major. I've been thinking of Applied Developmental Psychology, since it has a lot to do with children and would give me the opportunity to do curriculum development in addition to teaching, if I decide I want to do that. I do, however, have to apply to the School of Education (just as if I'm applying to college again), but the criteria isn't overly high so hopefully I should be okay. I also am going to hopefully start some tutoring, to get some first-hand experience with "teaching" children. So...yeah...that's one major change that is still unraveling.
Another major event is that I have gotten drunk! ;) Two Saturdays ago my friend Melissa had a party and a few people...Suzi, Sara, Lauren...from the CWO were there, along with some other friends of Melissa. It was absolute fun. :D We played Cranium and I did a whole bunch of charades-type things...including a very nice rendition (if I may so say myself) of the phrase "saved by the bell", while almost crashing into the sink. ;) I was a bit sick but not too bad...and Melissa treated me to a very nice post-hangover breakfast at Pamela's, which has awesome breakfast food. :)
Since then, I've been hanging out with Melissa and Suzi a lot (tons of fun!) and trying to get back into the whole school/homework mood, though not being entirely successful. :-P I've also hung out with Colin a bit and that's been fun. :)
Also, my Vegas pictures (and soon some random pictures of Pittsburgh!) are online at http://gallery.sector001.org/. Go check out my crappy photography skills! ;)
More to come, for sure...