Bao Ngo
The age of 18 is an important milestone for us. A lot of exams, memories, and changes all came up that year. When I’m looking back to our high school years, the moments of 12th grade are permanently imprinted clearly. That’s when I had to answer the question, “Who will I become in the future?”. I had big and small dreams in my pocket, full of sizes, for example, being a Nasa engineer, studying abroad, or speaking English like native people just for show-off purposes. To be honest, these were too far from reality. I always have fallback options if the main one is impossible. Remembering the coding lessons in secondary school, they are the most exciting knowledge for me to master. I love to solve the problem by logics, not learning by heart.
I’m proud it was my decision because it was the result of my experiences. My choices always have reasons and never go for just trending. Most importantly, when I make a decision, I have to take serious responsibility for it. It might be hard to choose again or start over. In the university period, I understood that this field was as challenging as rumours. I also lowered my high score standards. Score 8/10 was kind of fancy. To be honest, it was sometimes extremely tiring due to my habit of putting all exercise close to the exam day. Don’t be like me at this point. Whether you are a man or a woman, you will certainly not feel tired as long as you know the right way to study. There were times when I wanted to give up because there was too much pressure, but then I reassured myself by reminding that this was my choice. After all, I feel so grateful for these periods in my life. It’s how the steel was tempered. If there were no pressure and failure, I certainly wouldn’t be this version of me today.
There is a stereotype that I think is entirely wrong that women should not study IT. “Women” default to be unsuitable for hard work. However, I feel so happy to work as a software engineer. To work with passion, be free to give ideas, be heard, and be helped in a great working environment. Although my physical strength is not as good as male friends, it is completely okay; daily IT works do not require muscles. Many highly stressful industries out there involve lots of female workers, such as doctors, construction engineers, farmers, etc. Honestly, I really appreciate and respect their hard works.
Each person has their own advantages. Comparing our weaknesses to others is just making us feel negative. When I was in school, I felt unhappy because I didn’t study well and got attention. But later, I understood that, even though I was not too good at academic theory, I could still express my thoughts and creativity by programming, which has never been easier. Besides, I am active, cheerful and I’d be glad to make people enjoy working with me. The older I am, the more I know about my strengths. The answer will not be correct if we don’t take action. The result have to reveal from journeys. If you want to do something, do it right away, don’t think or plan too much.
