George W. Bush is president. His dad was president. Call me old fashioned but I think it’s grand. Following in your father’s footsteps is something not enough people do. Maybe the world would be a better place if more people imitated George W. Bush.
My father is a systems analyst for a geophysical company downtown. I will be just like him. I will follow in his footsteps and program in C++ and, if I’m lucky, I might even get to use Java. I’ll write scripts all day long and I’ll make sure the information that is put into my software will be hundred times better when it comes out. I will be happy. My dad is happy.
I can’t become a systems analyst just yet though. I don’t have the experience to be a senior programmer. Maybe I’ll work my way up from junior programmer or some sort of a mailroom post. I’ll courier floppy discs from one office to another until I’m ready to touch a computer keyboard and program in C. Then onto C+ and finally C++–my personal holy grail.
I will forget my yet to be acquired International Relations degree. It’s useless anyway. What internationals would I relate to? The Estonians? What for? They can’t offer me the joys of computer programming. They probably don’t even know what a computer is.
I will throw away my History degree (also yet to be acquired) or, better yet, I’ll flush it down my toilet. I don’t need it. In the rapidly changing world of computer programming the past doesn’t count. It’s all about the future, with my new career. I have to look forward or else I’ll lag behind.
My misguided forays into journalism will be a thing of the past, unless you count Popular Mechanics or Mac World. I still might write for them. Rags such as the Globe and Mail or the New York Times couldn’t even begin to understand my forthcoming articles about C++. I might even write them in C++.
I will forget about what makes me happy and do as my father does. I will take the C-Train downtown every morning, press the 17 in the elevator and make my way into my comfortable, though modest, office. I will sit in my chair, turn on some Eminem (wait, does my dad like that?), and I’ll sit there and bask in the glory of C++. I’ll compile and decompile at will. I’ll create the best damn geophysical software known to man and I’ll play some Quake on my lunch break because that’s what I want to do.
I’ll be like George W. Bush. I’ll continue the family tradition. I’ll name my son Kris W. Kotarski and hope he becomes a C++ programmer as well. Or maybe they’ll have C+++ by then.