I'm impatient. I always have been and likely always will be to some extent. However, throughout my life, I've consistently engaged in activities and embarked on journeys that have forced me to be patient and lessen what, for a long time, I thought was an inherent trait of mine.
I grew up as a competitive swimmer. With swimming, and any sport, to get better you have to show up to practice and push yourself harder than you worked the previous day. Unfortunately, it's not always that simple when injuries come into play, a bad protein bar before your race causes you to swim slower, or a bad day at school messes up your head for practice. Swimming was mentally and physically exhausting, but it molded me into who I am. Waiting several minutes, sometimes hours, for my events at meets allowed me to socialize with my teammates helping with my people skills. Many of my teammates, like myself, were high performers at many competitive schools in the NYC and Westchester area which led to helping each other with homework assignments on the pool deck or studying for tests. I mastered time management by the time I was 10 years old. But most of all, swimming taught me how to push myself to my limit. The sport gave me mental toughness; giving me the strength to smile in the faces of naysayers and prove them wrong.
Coding is a lot like swimming. Going to work and sorting through the same issue you've struggled with for a week feels like an injury. Getting your code to work after encountering several bugs feels like dropping time on an event. Everything in between, the long days of solving problems and puzzles, feels like going to practice daily. Coding forces me to slow down even when my mind is telling me to speed up. It challenges me mentally. It forces me to break through periods of discomfort, get creative, and believe in myself.
I encourage everyone who, like me, is consistently chasing maximum speed and efficiency, to try coding or anything that involves great levels of patience to succeed at. Patience is a virtue and skill I am continuing to improve and I'm grateful engineering and swimming have played a large role in this personal journey. I'm excited to see where life continues to take me. Practice makes patience.
-Zoe :)
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