Christina "I Can Make My Name Blink" Olson

I am a student in the University of Utah 1996 High School Computing Institute. Next year I will be a senior at Olympus High School, unless, of course, something truly unforseen happens (i.e. aliens blow up the world, etc.). Barring such occurences, I will enter the dread halls of Olympus next September to endure such things as my teachers, in their infinite wisdom, see fit to inflict on me (i.e. homework,etc.). Not that I'm bitter, oh no. I couldn't be happier to return to the one place that I will spend the entire summer trying to forget. Bitter? Ha! The one bright spot in this otherwise dismal future is that when I finally graduate I can safely repeat that famous quote from George Bernard Shaw, "I leave here today knowing that if I have gained an education it is not my teachers' fault."

Actually, I'm not as upset as I sound. Truth be told, I like school. I like learning. I even like my teachers (some of them, at least). But even I get tired of the endless essays, abominable AP's, and laborious lectures that go along with school. So when summer comes around, it's a relief. Finally, I am able to do nothing at all, and not feel bad about it (unlike during the school year, when "doing nothing" is actually just "procrastinating"). So you may be able to understand why I get slightly bitter whenever I contemplate September and the start of a new school year.

Which reminds me: If you're not in school yourself, be considerate towards those of us who are. This means that during the summer you shouldn't ask us questions such as "Are you excited to be a senior next year?" or "Are you looking forward to being in Calculas?" or anything else school related. I hate to break it to you, but no, I'm not "excited" to go back to school and I don't "look forward" to enduring another difficult class. I don't like being reminded of school while I'm trying to forget about it.

All this, of course, begs the question "Why are you doing HSCI if you'd rather be doing nothing?" First of all, I never said I wanted to do "nothing" all of the time. I know from experience that too much nothingness is downright boring. Secondly, I already said that I like learning. Now, imagine a program where you can learn without all the pressure, stress, and competition of school. Well, that's HSCI in a nutshell. To be perfectly honest with you, the main reason I decided to do this program is because it looked fun (NOTE: "fun" = computers, "fun" = learning, "fun" = a program that entails learning about computers (HSCI); thus, the reason I signed up for HSCI is to have fun). I haven't been disappointed yet.

One thing I have noticed, though, is that by the time I usually leave the computer lab I work in the ratio of males to females is about 10:1. And when I leave its 10:0. In fact, there are only about 9 girls out of 41 students in the HSCI program. These leads me to believe what I'd suspected all along: computers is a male-dominated field. Far from being discouraged, this knowledge only strengthens my resolve to enter this field myself.)