My Initial Fears

It is not every day that one gets the opportunity to adventure and learn at the same time. If you study at any school or college far away from your home, you will agree with me that the learning is not all that fun. Theirs is the homesick and worse the feeling of boredom because of the scheduled school routine.

My name is Rodger Jackson and this is story about an awesome adventure I had in China…

I was born in Cape Town, South Africa and grew there. After my high school education, I passed well and had the opportunity to study a degree in Computer Science at one of the most prestigious universities in S. Africa. I must agree that the course is also a good one, but the thought of studying so far from home didn’t augur well with me. But there were no other alternatives.

When, I joined the college, I was nervous that my performance would be affected by my negative thoughts but soon after, I realized that life is just like that. By the end of the first semester, I had gotten used to the school routine. I had made a couple of friends and the professors there were really friendly. What I really loved about my department professor was that he was very considerate and when we approached him with the idea of attending a technological exhibition during the first semester, he agreed to look into the matter.

But it all was a surprise when he announced that he was working on the logistics so that we would attend the China Information Technology Expo (CITE). If you don’t know what that is, it is one of the most popular technological expo in the world attracting thousands of visitors. Therefore the next months to the expo, we spend making adequate arrangements so that we would have some lovely time.

The Expo

Our Professor made all the travel arrangements on time and off we went to Shenzhen, China to attend the expo. Every student in attendance had properly planned with all the necessary kits required to facilitate our learning there in place.

I had researched more about the expo online, and was amazed to watch videos about the unique exhibition about a future digitized world. However, when we attended the expo on the second day (we didn’t go on the first because we were all tired), what I saw really amazed me.

Every exhibition was neatly arranged according to different categories of IT and the exhibitors much have be geniuses. One category which really fascinated me is the Mobile Internet Applications which included gaming, e-commerce and mobile apps technologies as well Software Products and Services which had experienced and well versed computer developers explain revolutionary technologies in cloud computing, Big Data applications, industrial software, and industry solutions.

There was a lot of learning and interactions with exhibitors who were very lovely, polite at responding to our queries and were willing to help us with some advising us on the best online communities that we would join to interact with other experienced developers.

By the end of the third day, I was lucky to make friends with one app developer whom I pitched to an idea about a business card reader app that I had thought for long to develop. He liked the idea I pitched to him and we exchanged contacts so that we could get in touch.

All in all I must conclude that it was not only about learning but also about adventure and networking in a career that I hope to make my name on one day.