About Me!
Hi! My name is Robyn. I was born and raised on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai and love to spend my free time at the ocean. Some of my favorite things to do include fishing, snorkeling, swimming, collecting shells, and reef walking. After I graduated from High School, I moved to Bellingham Washington to Attend Western Washington University to pursue Computer Science.
I first knew I wanted to study Computer Science when I was in my senior year of high school. At the time, I was very interested in pursuing art. I spent my free time creating graphics on my laptop. I loved making my "digital doodles" as I liked to call them. I was also very fond of math and science classes. Something about them always facinated me. Anyway, I was supposed to be doing exercises on Khan Academy for my AP Calculus class when I noticed that the sidebar was suggesting an art lesson. I thought it could be a good break so I clicked on it. To my surprise, I wasn't going to be drawing with a point and click of my mouse. Instead the application taught me how to use functions and parameters to draw and color shapes. Within a couple of hours, I had completed my first program. I had made a jumping penguin flapping its wings in falling snow. I was hooked. I loved the feeling that creating the program had given me. I had the creative freedom to make whatever I wanted but in a very specific and logical way. It was like solving a puzzle!
I'm not going to lie, Computer Science is no walk in the park. It was and still is very challenging. However, the constant learning, creating, innovating, and problem solving is what I love most about the field. Even so, sometimes I felt like I was alone in my struggles and thought about giving up, that I just wasn't cut out for it. I think back to some of those moments and remember trying to find others, especially women who have traveled a similar path. I couldn't seem to find any. Although left slightly discouraged, it motivated me to be the one to leave my journey for others to read about. It is hard seeing yourself doing something when there is hardly any representation to identify with. If it helps to encourage or support even one reader, then it has served its purpose.