I may be an English major now, but that doesn’t mean I never studied anything remotely related to STEM fields (“science, technology, engineering, and mathematics”–I’m just trying to use a trendy acronym, okay?). I bought into the whole “AP Classes Rule the World!” thing back in high school like many impressionable young students, and, consequently, took a handful of high-level courses outside of my beloved major.

(Incidentally, my life’s dream is to create a CollegeBoard rival and drive those despots out of the education market. Your future children will someday take the KSAT–beware!)

The bitter truth is, however, that scoring a 5 on the AP Calc exam is absolutely useless to a Cornell Arts & Sciences student who’s not interested in continuing mathematics courses throughout college: even with that score, I still need to fulfill my “distribution requirements” in science and math. Over the past few semesters, I’ve tried taking a few of the courses targeted at “non-majors”–specifically “Evolution” and “The Art of Secret Writing”–and was thoroughly unimpressed by both of them.

Enter Intro to Python.

I added this course not out of sheer spite or a desire to escape another inane class designed for those completely uninterested in math or science, but because (surprise, surprise!) I’m actually interested in programming. In the early days of my nerdy youth, I was convinced that learning a programming language would absolutely ensure my eventual world domination. Luckily for the world, though, I never had the time to take AP Comp Sci during high school, and that casual interest remained unexplored. Until now.

Intro to Python recently replaced Cornell’s dreaded Intro to Java course. Why did the language switch cause the class enrollment to increase so much that we had to get a bigger lecture hall? Well, besides the fact that Python is allegedly easier and more “fun” to use, the class is now taught by an engaging professor who has truly mastered the art of vocal projection in a gigantic room (trust me, there’s nothing worse than learning tricky material from a mumbler).

And even though some people voiced their doubts when I first mentioned my course choice (e.g. “You’re an English major! How will you keep up?”/”You should think about this. It’s going to take up WAY too much of your time.”), I’m just going to come out and say it–I really enjoy Python. 

I don’t always like the webcomic ‘xkcd,’ but when I do, it’s because of programming references.

That’s not to say, of course, that the class doesn’t challenge me (and, honestly, it’s nice to find a class that’s actually difficult for once). I’ve just found myself so fascinated by Python itself that I’m writing code as a hobby, inventing programs that fulfill extremely useful functions (such as creating a “shipper name” when given the names of two characters and converting normal text into the poorly-spelled language of various Internet memes) in my spare time. In the future, I’m looking forward to experimenting with text-based games, story generators, and–

What is this? Am I…having fun with the course material?

That’s certainly never happened in a distribution-requirement-fulfilling class before.