I love Computer Science.

I’m in my fourth year studying software engineering, and not once have I ever said I loved it. Ask me about it in person I’ll gladly tell you about the aspects of software engineering that I greatly enjoy, while taking great care to obscure the (many) things I loathe about this field. I might tell you about how I like solving puzzles and coming up with solutions to really difficult questions. But I wouldn’t ever say that I like programming. Or designing algorithms. Bleh.

I’ve always seen everything I hate in computer science as a means to an end. Programming is just the way to materialize that really cool idea that I want to see come into fruition. The skills I’ve acquired designing algorithms come in handy to make sure those cool ideas don’t fall flat on their face. Creating rich and engaging user interfaces is an abhorrent process but it lets you create beautiful, technological works of art.

The past four years have seen me wrestling with the notion that I could both extremely dislike and like something to the extent I do with my field of study. In Jeff Atwood’s last blog post of 2017 he mentions that throughout his life he’s kept coming back to software. I’ve had similar experiences, and it made me realize that you don’t have to love all of something to say that you love it. Especially when it comes to whatever it is you take up as your trade. I’ll always hate certain parts of computer science and like certain others — but I’ll keep coming back to it, because I love it.