111-06 106th St

Ozone Park, New York 11417

February 1st, 2023

Ms. Susan Delamare

Instructor

City College

160 Convent Ave

New York, New York 10031

Dear Ms. Delamare

My name is Mohammed Islam. I am a U.S. resident, born in Brooklyn, NY, but my parents are from Bangladesh. Although I was born a Brooklyn resident, I have gone back and forth between Queens and Brooklyn ever since I was a child. As a student, there have always been very high expectations of me, academically, from my parents and family, in general. From being top of the class all throughout grade school to getting into a specialized high school, I was always pressured by others to be the best, which led me to despise them for it. I didn’t see myself as academically gifted or more intelligent than my other family members in any way, since I didn’t let the awards or grades define who I was as a student and person. But, this wasn’t always the mindset I had due to the fact that the image of me being on a pedestal above others was drilled into me ever since I started school. However, once I started my education at Stuyvesant High School, I was both challenged and humbled. Here, I was surrounded by students who had the same background and upbringing as me. After four years, I can confidently say that I am not above others in any way, but I am unique as an individual. Coming to City College now, being a computer science major, I come much more work-driven and focused on my education to prove to myself that I can be a better version of myself, and not take the resources provided to me for granted.

I have always questioned my identity, and I still am. There are different parts of me I still don’t understand or have the answers to, such as my faith or my future profession. Day to day, I go about different possibilities and the likeliness of them, but they usually end up static, and I go about living as I always have. I don’t know what I want to be, or who I want to be. The issue is knowing what’s good for me and what’s not, but the line that separates them is usually a blurred one. Recently, I have been trying to think things through more and plan out my day so I know what I want to do at a certain time, like going to the gym or taking a nap, and it has helped me stay focused on what’s in front of me. The word I would use to encompass my lifestyle so far would not be disorganized, but spontaneous. Although this can be seen as a positive thing, more times than not it is not, since it leads to a lot of miscommunication within oneself. So I want to take a path that will lead me to have a more determined life.

Although I ponder about the career or profession I want to pursue, there is still a narrow variety of jobs that I actually care to try for. The two that I always go between is being an author or being a software engineer. These two careers obviously don’t look to be similar in many ways, but they hold two different meanings to me. My favorite hobby has always been writing fiction, and I usually wrote short stories in the fantasy genre. Creating my own worlds and characters would take up hours of my day as I grew up, and so it caused the dream of becoming a known author. Although it is what I want, I know the circumstances I am in and the job itself wouldn’t be enough. So, I deviated towards another job that would fit those circumstances. However, I haven’t completely given up writing as a whole. One of my life goals is to write and publish a book. I won’t do it for the money or any sort of recognition, but as a promise to myself, since I won’t have another life to do what I want to.

Engineering is a profession that consists of a variety of branches, such as mechanical or civil, or as I mentioned before, software. But the same premise applies to most of them, which is the act of designing and maintaining structures and machines. In our current era, we can see the development of artificial intelligence becoming more and more advanced and frequently used by the public. Also, basic observation and analysis has proved that climate change is a threat. But, engineers have also proved that they are a part of the solution. Engineers are creating new technologies that make renewable energy more available and affordable as the need for clean and renewable energy sources rises, which increases our chance of battling this danger.

Sincerely,

Mohammed Islam

Student