Feross and how his story can help me write mine

The first time I read Feross’s story, I had no idea how I was going to be able to relate this to my first paper. This assignment required me to think deeper to find the connection. The article was not well written or enjoyable, but it’s obvious he has other talents that don’t include writing. However, I was impressed with how much he had taught himself at such a young age. It’s very rare that a person his age would be so interested in learning that they would take their free time to teach themselves about computer programming.

I found his desire to learn inspiring and motivating. Learning is something we will do every day for the rest of our lives and the fact that he understood its importance at his age is astounding. Feross mentions many times that the key to learning something new is to do it over and over again, gaining hands-on experience every time. This is the connection I found to the paper that I will be writing.

Although I know nothing about computer programming, I do know what it’s like to learn something that isn’t necessarily easy. I can remember when I was in second grade learning how to read. I remember how foreign the words looked to me. I remember being so frustrated with myself for not learning the first or second time I tried. Everyone older than me could read, so I never expected it to be a challenge for me. However, as the saying goes, “misery loves company” I did feel better when I learned that my classmates were also struggling and becoming frustrated with the whole process. I also learned that compared to them, I was actually doing a lot better than most of them. Eventually I mastered it and it wasn’t much later that I fell in love with reading and especially writing.

The process of learning something can be frustrating and often difficult but in the end its also very rewarding. In order to be good at something and appreciate it, we must first learn. In the words of Clay P. Bedford, “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”