My name is David Clever, and I am working on my first year at UGA. I am majoring in computer science, which is a weird choice considering my high school never offered the course, and I have only messed around with programming a little bit before. But I chose this because computers, and technology as a whole really, fascinates me. I have grown up surrounded by technology, and my dad worked as a software developer, so he is extremely supportive of my interest in computer science. I have worked with the physical aspect of computers in the past. This was a period of several months where I researched components trying to find the most power for the least amount of money. I then anxiously waited for the parts to be delivered, and at the end of the week put it all together to enjoy this piece of technology that I poured my heart and soul into. It wasn't pretty, but it was mine and it helped me learn and now I am even more prepared for the next one I build. That was two years ago, and I still use that computer to this day. Although building and experimenting with hardware is interesting, what really fascinates me is the software aspect of computers. I like seeing my dad write his programs, which are just little snippets of code that sort certain pictures into certain folders or remove duplicate files to help clean up disk space on the computer. These types of things go over my head, so I started with the basics of learning how to make a simple calculator, and eventually got to be able to create my own text based game from scratch. I did all of these without prior experience or classes in these subjects, but this year I am excited to learn from the ground up how and why programming works. I too want to be able to create programs that sort through pictures or remove duplicate files, but I don’t want to just stop there. Today I don’t know where computer science will take me, but I am excited to use it to have a successful college experience as well as a successful career where I never get bored, since every day I will be working on something that I have always been passionate about.