“There is a very fine difference between a thing of beauty and a thing of joy. While beauty can be seen with the human eye, joy must be felt deep within the heart to truly envision. If your heart is weary of an object’s joy, your eye will never see it with any beauty.”
I remember listening to my grandfather’s thick voice as he mumbled this to me every now and then as I was growing up. The first test served by this lesson started when I was seven. I hated numbers; no, I loathed them in fact. I have often felt that the use of a fancy word adds to the embellishment or mutiny of a certain object depending on the situation. Anyways, numbers were not my thing. Struggling with them came rather naturally to me and any amount of effort would not lead to a good-hearted relationship between me and Mathematics. We always had our strains, and quite thick ones too might I add, more often than not.
Fast-forward a few years and I was still stuck at the same point in my life as far as numbers were concerned. I remember reading a very famous quote by Einstein where he remarked:
“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”
This was a rather difficult moment because I almost felt indifferent to the subject. I did not gather how something of such misery to me could be a source of joy for so many and the basis of so much beauty that I saw in the world.
However, when I was fourteen, numbers suddenly started making sense and for the lack of a better word, I was truly “obsessed”. I remember practicing mathematics for long hours every single day simply because it brought such a sudden rush of joy. That was when I realized grandpa had been right all along. We only see beauty in things when our heart feels the joy that they bring to us.
When I started my freshmen year at university, I had to take one computer programming course. I had heard that programming can be hard for first timers; however, I had also heard that if you get the “hang” of it, you will love it. In hopes that I will be one of the latter and not of the former, I spent my first few classes. It was a mess. I didn’t get it, it felt absolutely impossible and I was frustrated. With just a single semester gone, programming was, to put in appropriate terms, getting on my nerves.
You might wonder where ACM- SEECS comes in to play here. ACM- SEECS is a community of well-knit individuals who know what it is to be programmer. I attended a few of their workshops, talked to some of their core team members and learnt what no one had previously told me: programming, just like anything else, is a skill. With just enough passion for the subject, you can frame and present your imagination on the screen. A very passionate young member of ACM remarked and his words have stayed with me since,
“Programming is more than a few lines of code on your screen. It is a vessel, just like a painter’s canvas. The only beauty with the code, just like the painting, is that it must be representative of you. If a painter paints with his heart, the imperfection becomes the new perfect; your code should be just that. Errors will take care of themselves.”
What happened on from here is not too hard to guess! Grandpa’s words got testified once again. Programming became an experience of utterly immense joy for my heart and it has gotten only better and much more beautiful.
Ayesha, a fellow SEECS student and a very dear friend, remarked,
“You know you come in to a university with lots of hopes and a certain set of ideals. You dream as to how things should be. The sad part is: none of that is a piece of cake. The good part is that there are lots of people who absolutely give you the time of your life. ACM’s chapter in SEECS has some brilliant individuals and I am very proud to have them as my friends! They are the good part!”
Ali, a passionate blogger, shares as I ask him about ACM- SEECS,
“You know, initially, I thought this would be just like any other computer society that we find in universities. I guess I was wrong. I do believe they can notch up their game by introducing more competitions and workshops. More opportunities for me to get to know people and their stories!”
A few opinions were rather enough! As much as I am thankful to ACM for providing me with a second joy after numbers, every student, whether a part of ACM- SEECS or not, had a unique story that reflected in very deep terms what the society meant for them. This is a huge thing because alongside technology, you have a mention of ACM’s chapter in SEECS.
Three cheers for ACM and its wonderful core team at NUST!
Written By: Tehreem Rasul
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