My Life So Far...

If there is one thing that my life has been centered around, that thing is technology. Ever since my parents got our family an early Apple LC in 1992, fully equipped with ten megabytes of RAM and sixty-six megabytes of memory, technology has consumed my existence. Even when I was about five with that Apple, everyday I would learn some new trick that would allow me to do what many saw as seemingly pointless tasks, like modifying the way the computer handled graphics or adjusting the various computer memory allocations. By the time I was in the third grade, I definitely knew more about computers than any other student at my elementary school. For not only was I the only kid who knew what “W.W.W.” stood for, but I also occasionally helped teachers with their own computer tasks. One time, for example, a teacher had requested that the class type up a list of vocabulary in alphabetical order, a laborious task for many. Yet I was able to cut the time in sorting by a staggering amount by teaching the teacher and students how to get the computer to automatically alphabetize the list.

By the time I was in seventh grade my computing skills had defiantly developed to a very mature point. Not only did my desktop publishing teacher allow me to skip most of the assignments the other computer users had to complete because I already was so proficient in computing, but in my typing class I was able to successfully disable the school's computer security system. Also, in seventh grade I was accidentally put into the school's first video production class. Here, with my technical expertise, I incorporated the power of our iMac, which I named 'Bob,' to provide for some aesthetically pleasing computer graphics. In fact, I even learned an advanced animation program that allowed me to create a fully computer-created opener for our daily program, which was broadcast to every room in the school.

Finally, technology has largely remained my main focus in high school. In Freshman year I created a web page called “Shortman” in which I expressed some of my opinions regarding the best and worst of the Internet and the computer worlds. More importantly, though, I learned how to do some HTML coding. Soon thereafter, I learned some JavaScript, with which I added an interactive dimension to Shortman.

Beginning during the summer of my Junior year I achieved my first internship in computer sciences at Martha Jefferson Hospital. The first summer there I worked in the hospital's larger server room. There, I was put in charge of many tedious tasks, like inventory and the recording of the server's routing preferences. But during the summer of my Senior year the hospital gave me a task much more intense. The job was to eliminate dangerous programs (spyware, worms, and virus) from every computer Martha Jefferson owned, as well as to tweak the settings on every computer so that they logged onto the main server differently during the logon process. This job was defiantly the most involved project I have ever been involved with regarding computer science. Not only did I have to work with countless Martha Jefferson employees and their computers, but I had troubleshoot problems I ran into.

This year, I am involved with computers more than ever. I built the one I am using now after my old one died one me and I am in charge of the technical aspect to our school newspaper. Also, I currently maintain an web page online that displays my, as well as many other's, commentary on the world. The site is so popular that 1,828 individual users accessed the page in the past month, while it has also been loaded 5,574 times!

In conclusion, I anticipate that technology will remain an active part of my life for years to come. I will continually be monitoring any new developments in the field through the Internet as well as other conventional media outlets. Hopefully, one day I will be able to use my knowledge to help people grasp the abundant power of technology for their own lives on a daily basis. But until then, I will continue to help as many people as I can with their computer needs while continually developing my own skills.