How Friendship Determined My Future Career

In the midst of boredom during a third period lull, I glanced around the room, searching for something that would intrigue me. Sitting at a desk in the corner of the room rapidly typing into his laptop was a senior named Sebastian, whom I really didn’t know at the time. I decided to go over and take a peek. Sebastian was a student who was always typing away on his computer whenever he could get the chance. As someone who was only passionate about sports I believed that Sebastian and I could never be friends and at most, just classmates. Nevertheless, now I'm writing the essay about friendship and it is dedicated to Sebastian, my best friend.

All I saw was him doing was typing a bunch of random letters and numbers line by line. After 15 minutes of watching him do this, he clicked a few more things and began playing a 2D first-person shooter game. Amazed, I asked him if he had created this. He nodded. As soon as I got home, I searched computer science on YouTube and a TED Talk entitled “Computer Science is For Everyone.” I began watching countless of videos on the subject matter and the next day in class I got up the courage to ask Sebastian if he could help teach me how to code. With a warm smile, he nodded and told me to take a seat next to him.

Sebastian showed me all the websites, books, blogs, and videos he had used in learning how to code. The more I learned over the months, the more passionate and skilled I became at coding. For the first time in my life I was truly passionate and determined about something besides tennis. I had no doubt in my mind that I wanted to make a career out of this, and all this was thanks to Sebastian.

Through teaching me to code, Sebastian and I became close; learned that not only was he brilliant but he was kind to others even when he was going through very tough times. Even when he was dejected and disappointed about his situation, he was always happy to lend a hand to me whenever I needed help. In the future, I hope to create a tech company with Sebastian and revolutionize the world as we know it. As two people from two totally different cultures and interests, Sebastian and I broke down all these barriers and changed each other in ways that were unimaginable a year prior to our encounter. Nothing can express how truly grateful I am to my friend, mentor, and future business partner.