My First Experience in Programing Essay Example

I was in my second year of high school not knowing what I was going to do after. I was hoping picking random classes in high school would help me with that. Then one assignment in my computer programing class helped me choose what I wanted to be. I woke up to a very sunny day and clear sky to get ready for school. I was happy about going to one class which was computer programing because we had just finished a project and were getting a new one. I was hoping to ease through all my classes. When class had started the teacher gave us an assignment to make a program for a calculator. I was very excited because that was our first program that could be used by everyone. After Mr. Mcginnis (the teacher) said, “This assignment is due in two weeks start now” everyone was quiet and working. The only thing I could hear was myself thinking about the program and the sound of 25 people typing on keyboards.

After that day I would work at home and during school on the program. When I worked on it at home my mom would not believe that I was doing homework. She thought I was on the computer playing a game because I never used the computer for homework. She would only see numbers and letters on my computer screen. In her eyes these numbers and letters looked like a game. She said I was lying to her so I would not have to do chores and have a reason to stay up late. I remember sometimes staying up till 1 am on a Friday working on the program, because I was bored and not sleepy. My eyes burned and looked red from the screens brightness and the room’s darkness. I would work on the program late just to get it done.

I had three days of work on the program and I thought I had finished it. I was so excited to run it for the first time and try it out. I was proud of it until I tried to run it. The program popped up a black window that was empty and only had a blinking white dash on the top left. One second later, the window vanished. I was frustrated when the program did not work. I worked so hard and was torn apart when it did not work. Then I had to go back and read it again to find the mistake I made and make it work. Knowing that the program did not work put me in such bad mood that I did not want to do anything else but finish the project. I ended up giving up on it. I had to ask the teacher for help because I was getting nowhere.

The next day, I got to class and was anxious to ask him what was wrong with the program. I was just waiting for Mr. Mcginnis to finish helping other students and that felt like hours. He finally came to me and I told him,“so the program is not working and I have all the code done.” Mr.Mcginnis looked at the code and responded with “on my computer it says that you have a three syntax error so try looking for three missing commas.” I was surprised and frustrated that three commas is what compromised my calculator. It was stopping my three pages worth of code. I was relieved that I did not have to start over, but finding three missing commas in three pages was going to be difficult. It was like finding a missing comma in a book. It was going to take some time.

I finally found the commas and was feeling that it was going to function this time. I looked for common mistakes and could not find something else that would not make it work. I tried to work on it but the problem reappeared. I was missing more commas and was getting nowhere. I was frustrated at it, and when I got to class I was asking people next to me if they were having trouble. That's where I found out something about myself that I did not know. Most of the students I was asking did not even know how to start or where to start. I remember asking one student named Juan to check mine out to see if he could find any mistakes and he said “bro I don't even know how to start how could I help.” I was amazed that we all had the same time in class and teaching, yet starting the program for them was close to impossible. It made me think that maybe programing is not for everyone, but I was good at it. This was the first time I ever had thought about what I was going to do after high school.

The deadline was getting closer. In total it took two weeks to write the program, working on it at home and at school. Then the day came where the program was due the next day in class. I was at home checking for syntax errors like crazy. Rereading every single line like if I was reading an article. I wanted to make sure it was correct because I did not want the program to fail again. I remember zoning out my mom calling me to go eat just so I can check if the program was going to work. I was shaking while holding the mouse hovering over the execute button on the program like if my life depended on it. I finally had the guts to click on and it the computer froze. I was staring at my computer screen waiting for the window from the program to pop-up, and Not blinking thinking that I would miss it if it did not work. Then finally the program came up with the black windowed screen. The window was asking what number I wanted to dial in and I felt 1000 pounds came off of my chest. I dialed on my computer 3 x 4, then the program gave me 12. I knew that the program was working perfectly and I had made a calculator.

After I had finished this program, I realized how hard it was just to write a simple program like a calculator. It made me think how many people and hours it must take to write a website or program app for a phone. Doing all that hard work and finally getting it to function was also extremely rewarding. Computer programing class helped me pick what I wanted to be and that is a computer science major. Being in that class fueled my confidence to pursue programing. The passion I grew for programing made me think I was doing horrible in class, yet I was fine the entire time.