My future, my fantasy.!!

Think about yourself worthy to be called as IT professional, how do you see yourself 10 years from now, what are your strategies to get there?

The question stated above can be answered in just a few words, a few sentences or phrases perhaps but before that let us try to dissect the question and layout words and experiences of high importance that will make us understand those words above and thus deriving to a conclusion that the question is seeking.

Future. Tomorrow. Two words that evidently differ in the form they are spelled, in the manner they are used and in the degree or length of the period of time that they refer. But amidst such discernible differences both can be said to share the same essence, An essence that translates a period of time after today, after the present. A time often imagined, tried being oversee, a time of uncertainty. A product of yesterday’s dreams and today’s actions, it is what we call as the CONSEQUENCES of the past and present. It makes one wonder, “What would I be?”, “What would my future would be like?”.

Fate. Destiny. Words of different form and character but carries the same trail of thought. Both terms seems to the order of things predetermined or established by some divine decree. Every person has a different fate, a unique destiny, a different path of life that is determined by his decisions. Should one believe in something like fate or destiny? Thou the point being stressed here is not the destiny of falling in love with someone or any other romantic delusions one has but to the academic point of view. Would one be destined for greatness? More specifically, am I destined to be an IT professional, my services being sought with all those large and well known corporations?

Dreams. Goals. Most of the times these words are used interchangeably. If not, then is used to relate the other word from the other. Both are very much in tune to the same idea when defined, thus making most people confused of the manner of using both words but in reality the execution of both words varies largely, distinguishing their differences more clearly. man was created a dreamer sculpted for towering ambitions and colossal aspiration. He is endowed with the conscience and knowledge of good and evil, equipped with the exceptional artistry, dexterity.

Have you ever dreamed of sailing around the world-alone? Or have dreamed of being an Olympic equestrian, a CSI detective, or win a Nobel Prize? How about being an IT professional or simply finishing college as an IT fourth year regular student?

If you have ever dreamed or aspired to accomplish any of these difficult tasks or any of a thousand others the human mind can dream- then you are alive. You are a thinking, feeling human being that is emotionally, spiritually and physically alive, for dreams are the fire that lights up our human spirit.

Every person within her, her own set of dreams and goals in life, but what is a dream? A dream is an idea that develops within a courageous human mind and it is like a seed. If a seed is carefully planted at the appointed time in fertile soil and matured with the proper amount of water and sunlight, it will spring into life and bloom to full maturity. So is it with the dreams of men. It was one said that,” A man who has a dream is a man with a promise. A man pursuit of a dream a man who is alive. A man who has achieved a dream is a man who has experienced life and conversely, a man who has a cold heart or sterile mind or is engulfed in fear to achieve his dreams is a man who is dead.”

All dreams however, like every great and noble aspiration that has passed in one’s mind, are difficult to achieve, because all dreams are attended with risks. I, for one, is thinking that “Would I really finish my studies at the appointed time? Would I fail again? But if I would I shall rise again. Would I really be a competent and globally competitive IT professional in the future? Am I really destined to be one?” In thoughts like those we can see to opposing but mysteriously interrelated human emotions that exist in all of us and that are, fear and courage. Many people don’t realize (or is it only me) that in order to achieve dreams they need to face the risks positively. How many of us have been swept under by fear only to find within ourselves a source of courage beyond our own comprehension? Is it not the fear of the unknown, of the future, of our ability and competence which creates challenge and willingness to say I can? And is it not that ensuing drive to meet the test that generates our courage, which in turn, is our source of strength to conquer fear and meet the challenge? Fear and courage are always present in our dreams and if, however, fear suffocates our courage, we will fail; if courage sterilizes fear, we will die; but if a proper mixture of both permeates our quest, we will succeed. It therefore takes courage to dream, for successful dreamers are neither weak men or are they fools.

But dreaming isn’t enough. A wise men one said, “Do not live in your dreams and forget to live”. It is wonderful to have a dream. It can also be wonderful to have a goal. They can be useful, or a burden, depending on where you are in your personal growth. Today, though, I am looking at something different. Today I am looking at the difference between having a dream and having a goal.

A dream is a goal without legs. It is a wonderful thing to have, can be the guiding passion of your life, but unless you clarify it and give it the legs to move toward you, getting there is going to be very much a matter of luck.

To transform a dream into a reachable goal you must clarify it, provide the details, and make it so clear that you can see it, feel it, know what you will feel like when you get there. This works for you in many ways. It clarifies what you want to the point that you will always be attuned to anything that is relevant. Opportunities will not pass you by unnoticed. It shows you what you need to do to get there, step by action step. It makes false detours and dead ends less likely to distract you. And perhaps the images you carry in your mind and heart will echo out to the universe for manifestation. The clearer and more vivid the image, the more likely are all of these things to happen.
Goals and dreams complement each other. If you only have dreams without any goals to support them, you can easily feel overwhelmed by the enormity of your dream. The shorter-term goals provide achievable intermediate targets that serve as stepping stones toward your dream.

If you only have goals but no dreams, you can easily fall into the trap of focusing so much on the steps that you lose sight of your destination. You run the risk of forgetting "why" you are pursuing these goals in the first place. Specific short-term goals are not terribly motivating by themselves either; their power comes from their connection to a big inspiring dream.

Looking back when I was still in my preschool days, I used to imagine myself carrying a brief case full of folders and legal papers, my hair pulled back in a tight bun and wearing smart looking glasses to intimidate my opponents in the legal battle that I am going to be in. I dreamed of being a lawyer whether it be for criminal law or tax law. For me, in that early stage of my life and young mind, it seemed really cool to be a lawyer. Later on, I changed my mind and decided to be a teacher instead. I was having a lot of hard time going to school and face the scary teachers scowling at us and giving us all these exams and projects and I thought that if I became a country serving, nationalistic teacher I can make other kids suffer the way I did when I was young. Its a kind of a payback for me. But then I fall out of liking that dream of mine because it really seemed silly and childish not to mention a bit diabolical, to a point of stupidity if I might add.

It was a beginning of another school year, my senior and last year in high school. For three years, I have worked hard to be where I am now, or rather at that time. Finally a senior in high school, a young person on the threshold of adulthood, thinking of important but silly things like, What have I become?“, “What will I take up in college?”, “What do I want to be like?”, and other things concerning m future. I told myself that I have to set my goals, to make plans. I want to look into the distant future and see the things that can be the consequences of my actions or my decisions-to-be. Even though a lot of people expressed their opinions of college being almost hell-like (as some may put it), full of hardships, sleepless nights and torment brought by the monster professors, I cannot seem to imagine myself in such frightening situations. I was always thinking that maybe some people was just exaggerating things. I have no time to ponder on such things because actually I still haven’t chosen, a college I would like to go to, more importantly I still have not decided on a course. All this things like planning and strategizing my way to a college or to find a course just remained as thoughts. Later on, I heard my friends are taking exams in various colleges, so I joined in all those exams without any clear direction. A huge portion of my acquaintances and close friends were stuck between choosing a medical or computer related course, so was I at that point. I passed nearly all college entrance exams I took and since most of my friends tried to enroll as an Information Technology or Computer Science student in the University of South Eastern Philippines where I also passed. And finally I decided, rather abruptly, to go to this university, who is known for being a tough school wherein a huge percentage of the students are not only brilliant but also scholars under various foundations and organizations. I said to myself that since I don’t know what course I would want to be in or I don’t know what university I want to attend, I would just pick a college where a lot of my friends would enroll.

Why? Simply because if I ever feel sad or miserable at least I have a lot of friends to help me and to guide me and well, to cry on. It was kind of cowardly of me, now that I think about it but that was really the main reason why I became an Information Technology student in the University of South Eastern Philippines. (Sir Gamboa may wrung my neck if he reads this. Kidding!!) . Making decisions was the painful part for me, the part I agonized over. But once the decision was made, I simply followed through — usually with relief that the choice was made. Sometimes the relief was tainted by despair, like my decision to come to USEP as an IT student. But it was still better than wrestling with the alternatives. This decision was ridiculously easy to live with, just go with the flow and deal wit all te consequences, that’s what I thought. I tried to think of the positive things rather than pondering on the negative things. For example, instead of fearing that I will be horrible in a computer related course because I have no computer knowledge, I don’t even surf the net that much those days and I would fare better in a science or medical course because (I ‘m not bragging but) I am good in sciences and I totally love Biology and Chemistry, I told myself rather enthusiastically that I must build up my weakness in dealing with computers than strengthen my knowledge on things that I am already good at. My sister thought that I made a brave and right move for the same reason. Sometimes, I get confused n whether I am really saying all those stuff to assure my family that I made the right decision or if I am convincing my own self, but either ways I convinced my sister and a part of myself at that time, and that seems enough. But it also occurred to me that it’s also high time for kids like me living in this digital society to be familiar with computer and the cyber space for it’s the information age.

For these past three years in college, I learned to love my course and my school, not only due to my old and newly acquired friends but also to all the things I learned that made me get excited, ecstatic and sometimes scared. It seems to grow on me with each passing day. I have realized a lot of things, really, like we are in the information age of the digital society and technology it growing more and more everyday through the brilliant minds of the IT professionals like Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google.

Speaking of Google, one night I saw news about Google. A place where all computer geeks like me considered as a haven. According to that news, Google was ranked as the number ONE office or work haven in the world. It offers not only a place for computer nerds and wizards to serve the masses by providing a well built and maintained search engine but also other websites and services that the cyber space can offer. Google for me, makes the word impossible seem non-existent. This is my new professed dream, to work in Google’s main office and be one of its contributors or partner. In class, I was not the smartest student but I always try to do my best to be one. I listen to the lessons, I do my projects and assignments without crying about the sleepless nights and no-bath-days that I had in a few consecutive days. I did all of these not only to be a good student but also to be a successful IT professional in the future.

One of my subjects required me to adopt an IT related company and do interviews, scrutinize their networks and systems and al that stuff. We were asked to develop a Information System Plan, and upon hearing it I thought it would be easy. Later I found out it wasn’t. Why? Through the interviews, company visits and system observation, what I know at the moment is still insufficient. The IT world is so broad, can not be drawn to a map, it has limitless boundaries and possibilities. I realized that even if I finish four years of college studying about it through the entire lessons given to me, I can not learn all things that an IT professional should know.
And from what I called “NEAR FAILED EXPERIENCED”, I had last semester from my other class, it confirmed my thoughts that I seem to have left a lot of IT rocks unturned. It dawned me that with a pace as slow as I am going now how can I be a Google partner or contributor with such lack of knowledge. I cannot say that it the university’s fault since as I said the IT environment is so broad that they can’t possibly cram them all into the prospectus. It all down to me, I guess.

Going back to the question given above, I like to see myself as a brilliant IT professional who balances her time as a Google contributor, an IT enterprise or IT school owner, and a family woman of course.

Right now, my first strategy to achieve these goals is to do some planning and this time to actually pour some efforts and actions to it. I believe that strategic planning makes false detours and dead ends less likely to distract me. I would try to be specific in creating my plans and goals. Study in school, and do some self study for other things that my classes can not teach me. I think the self study part is the most important; one should not be contented with what other people teach them. Especially, in an environment like IT community and cyber space where it is unending, and ever changing, I should have to keep on studying and researching. True, that even if I have a whole lifetime to study I can not over turn every star of knowledge in a vast IT sky so should be my learning. Doing that shows perseverance to gain success. And lastly open my eyes for any opportunity that may pass my way, and if in a moment that no opportunity is passing my by, I think I could make ways to weave through in and out of place where opportunity lies. There’s no point in just sitting and waiting for it to come. One should not pray for luck instead do anything in one’s power to succeed. At the end of the day, no matter how cheesy must this sound, perseverance and passion for what one does keeps him or in my case, her to succeed in life. PS: Don’t forget to ask guidance from God of course for with Him anything is possible just be sure to combine actions and hard work to one’ prayers.