Reflections from a recent graduate

On February 29, 2012, a story began to be written for me and for many people who, like me, felt the desire to be professionals, to learn, to face new challenges. It was the day I began to educate myself in a wonderful world, full of challenges and unique moments. And Engineering (even better Systems) was the best career I could have chosen.

Since I was a child I have been attracted to numbers, puzzles, riddles and all that which for some others is considered boring. But something very strange is that I only used the computer to play games or chat on Messenger (yes, the old Windows Live Messenger) and I never asked myself what was “behind the scenes”, that made a button do something or that a character in a game jumped or moved. I started studying Systems Engineering for the love of numbers, not programming.

It took a year and a half for me to really develop a great affection for this whole world of arrays, vectors, cycles and conditions (I’m not very frontend yet :P). The day I made my first Hello World (In Dr. Racket, a little-known language.) was epic, and not to mention when in Eclipse I made a window appear with a blank canvas, Java was the best! I really decided that this was what I wanted, what I liked, what I wanted to dedicate myself to.

Today, after a long, enriching and beautiful five years, the day has come to finish, to end a cycle. I write this article to encourage you. If you read this and you are still studying, I invite you to follow the path, the end tastes sweeter when you have fought for it, the feeling of having finished your degree is indescribable, it is worth all the time in the world to stay until 4:00 AM programming, it is worth every second to study until Sunday because you have an exam on Monday.

Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t liked the race yet, I had to wait a year and a half to feel completely comfortable in it. And if you really think that what you are currently studying is not your thing, stop for a moment and decide better, because whatever you study will be what you will dedicate almost your entire life to, choose wisely and always keep in mind that everything requires effort.

Enjoy university, make friends, learn, enjoy and sleep late on vacation. However, when you graduate the game is not over, you must continue learning, updating yourself, trying to be better at what you do. Don’t be a mediocre professional.

That being said, we’ll see you next time. See you soon!

Translated using GPT 5.3 Codex