I've been pretty interested in what the difference is between me and those higher up in the academic department (as in studying, not as in teaching). :D This are the people whose academic results are like an age above mine. You've probably seen this post before somewhere when I was reflecting upon the difference. I think since I'm a little more mature now, I see it in a clearer light, so to speak.
These people are quite the talented people. They are gifted with what I would call the will to achieve. They have ambitions and aspirations and they hunt them down. While I should envy this will, this is what makes them them and this difference will make me to be me. Hence, I couldn't care less. :D
I'm a lot more aimless. I didn't know that I would go to HELP Institute for my studies. I didn't quite grasp that actuarial science was probably what I wanted to do. I took up programming because I thought it was fun. (It still is.) I loved mathematics because I thought it was one of the few things that seemed to challenge me in the right way. (Complex yet simple, amusing when you realise how careless you were.)
In the few months I gathered more knowledge about this field, the more I liked it. We were talking about a field with need for strong maths (check), probability (even better still), and some programming knowledge (you've got to be kidding right?). Am I taking this subject because I thought it would be fun? No. I took it because I liked the field - and I like the challenge too.
I believe firmly in doing what you like for a living. I rarely considered programming as a career because I probably would be sleeping through most of the course. That was certainly not something I wanted to study, although it was not entirely nonviable as a career. I like programming a lot, but not enough to tread through what I already knew like the back of my hand (honestly speaking, I probably know programming better than the back of my hand. I mean, how many of you count the number of hairs on the back of your hand?).
It was probably between business and computer science for me. I never did truly like the pure sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics) although some readers of this blog might remember me for my insane chemistry marks. I probably could do medicine, but I probably wouldn't make a good doctor, and it doesn't make much sense to me to do what I essentially didn't like.
It never occured to me I would be doing some form of applied maths (which is probably some kind of pure science). The goal didn't come until I learned of it. I was essentially aimless for a while, and settled into this. I've received a hell of a lot of warnings about my maths needing to be strong and so on and so forth. What a lot of people don't realise is that programming isn't for everyone.
I believe programming can be quite abstract for some people, and for some people, it just plain clicks perfectly. You can see immediately in class who are the ones who are struggling and the ones who are breezing along. What is the level of difference? It's probably some kind of level of thinking, some kind of madness which never made it through correctly.
Everyone has a certain pathway of thinking. I would think the best among the human race have already identified what they want to do, and will do anything in their power to get it. Some of us know what we want to do, but cannot tell that it is not what we really want. As for the rest of us? We just follow the flow. Sometimes, this flow will lead us to greatness. Other times, it will lead us into a steady line. At worst, a descent into oblivion.
We are who we are for a reason, and we all serve a purpose in this world of chaos. There will always be levels of difference, glass ceilings and floors. However, we should never forget, the levels are not necessarily above each other. :D
May you find... umm... your destiny. Maybe. LOL.