I am firm believer of the saying that: “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration.” I put my

best effort into solving problems presented before me. This way, I believe, creativity shows up and, as a result,

enriches the work greatly. After my algorithm was set, I mentally analyzed the project in more details. It was

the most difficult part for me since I cannot think if there is not absolute silence. It takes a lot of time to piece

together all of the logic. In this project, I had to execute the loops and conditions in my mind as if I was a

walking compiler. I had to account for several discrepancies. For example, if the sender tries to enter invalid or

out of bounds input, or a non-existing filename, cases which I did not consider in my algorithm. Attempts of

such would cause the program to give an incorrect output. Although normally it seems tedious working on a

project for such a long time, I did not even realize that I had spent six hours in the computer lab. I experienced

the lesson, “ Patience is a virtue.”

It took me approximately four days to write the code, and I was tired, because I did not sleep well those days. The desire to solve the problem kept me sleepless all night brainstorming in even greater details. I loved to hear my favorite songs while working on coding because I think it helps me to continue my work with the computer. I debugged the program after I wrote each part, and every time I saw it running promptly, I exploded with joy; it was a great time for me. I remember the last day of my work. I was getting some debugging error, and it was taking time to find the error. The problem looked impossible, so I was annoyed. At that moment, the janitor who works in that building came in to clean. He had headphones in his ear, and he was dancing while cleaning the room. I looked at him and burst out laughing. That hilarious moment calmed me, and I started to work with newly energized passion. Within a half of an hour I fixed the problem, and a big smile appeared on my face. I was thinking of dancing like that guy because it was a monumental achievement for me.

The whole project ended up giving me confidence on my work and enriched my passion for hard work and patience. Each step of my work inspired me to keep on working proving once again that breaking up a large problem into small parts/steps can ease the workload and maximizes the possibility of finding a solution faster. Discussing the problem with TA’s was also very beneficial. I realized the importance the working in groups and sharing ideas. I had to face the obstructions every minute, and by facing those challenges, I learned the most important lesson of my life, “Don’t give up.” I am glad that I have achieved that virtue, and now I have gained the efficiency and confidence to attempt any kind of project. Patience and endurance is an invaluable part of life.