Life is hard. Many of us have realized that by now. If you disagree, you are either incredibly talented or haven’t lived long enough to realize that. For a long time, life was easy for me. I breezed through early education, middle school, and high school with minimal effort, and life was good. However, when I got to college, things began to change. Classes were hard. “What? I actually have to study and put in effort?” Imposter syndrome set in. “Why is everyone so much smarter than me?” “How did I get here?” “Why don’t I get it like they do?” My mental health began to decline. I blamed others, attributing their success to natural talent, and refused to believe I was being left behind.
What I didn’t realize was that not all these people were naturally talented—they simply worked harder than I did. I got used to life being easy, putting in minimal effort, and cruising by, resulting in a lackluster work ethic. Consequently, I changed majors after my first semester of college. I thought computer science wasn’t for me because it was too hard and I didn’t understand everything right away. I spent the next year trying to decide what to pursue, exploring Kinesiology, Japanese, and Political Science, but none felt right for me.
Someone once told me, “Everything is hard. Nothing you decide to major in is ever easy.” As the semester continued, I realized they were right. Nothing is truly easy, and you must put in your full effort into everything you do. The issue wasn’t that everyone was smarter than me—it was that they worked harder. I decided to switch back to computer science and complete the degree. No more cruising and no more blaming anyone but myself.
This realization is crucial, especially in the highly competitive field of computer science. You won’t always be the smartest person in the room, but you can be the most hardworking. In today’s job market, hard work is essential because everyone else wants to succeed just as badly as you do. This means not only studying for your classes but also working on projects outside of class to learn new technologies on your own.
As someone who aspires to work in the computer science field, I believe grit is the most important quality for success. Computer science is challenging, but not impossible. Be the hardest-working person in the room, and you will succeed. Don’t give up, and you will succeed. You will succeed.