“The Myth of Sisyphus”, Albert Camus Page 14: “A step lower and strangeness creeps in: perceiving that the world is “dense,” sensing to what a degrees a stone is foreign and irreducible to us, with what intensity nature of a landscape can negate us. At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a last paradise. The primitive hostility of the world rises up to face us across millennia. For a second we cease to understand it because for centuries we have understood in it solely the images and designs that we had attributed to it before hand, because henceforth we lack the power to make use of that artifice. The world evades us because it becomes itself again. That stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is. It withdraws at a distance from us. Just as there are days when under the familiar face of a women, we see as a stranger her we had loved months ago or years ago, perhaps we shall come even to desire what suddenly leaves us so alone. But the time has not yet come. Just one thing: that denseness and that strangeness of the world is the absurd.” Humanity has been trying to solve the question of what is the meaning of life since we existed. To name why life matters reduces it down to a simplistic dichotomy that does not encapsulate the whole problem. So, how can life and the question of its existence be absurd? Through a paragraph from “The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus, humanity is afraid to answer the question of what life is because it disrespects the nature of the society we were made to live in, and humans are afraid to find that they don’t matter to life itself. Humanity is afraid to answer the question of life because it disrespects the nature of society through the language we have created and our application of standards upon the world. Albert Camus called this phenomenon “dense” and the word dense is meant to mean closely compacted. He uses imagery to paint a picture of a nature-filled landscape, using words like stone, soft sky, and trees. These are words that have a meaning in human language, with these words referring to objects. However, language itself only refers to objects. Humans needed a way to define what they see to explain their situation to other people, like where they are, what they sell, etc. So, language refers to objects as a way to explain them. Language itself is not concrete, because words have different meanings based on the context they are used. So, while we may perceive the landscape that Albert Camus painted with stones, trees, and a soft sky as physically dense with objects, it is all an illusion. Dense also means stupid when referring to people. While it may be a dense landscape the person looking out upon the landscape themselves is also dense because they are defining a landscape not by what it is, but by what it is called. The landscape is made of false, stupid shapes that we name because they are objects and concepts. Albert Camus calls language dense because language itself is stupid and changes based on the moment in time. He goes on to say that “the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning which we had clothed them…” The clothing is language in which the speaker weaves themselves. Society is built upon this clothing because without it everyone would be naked in their ideals. So, when we can’t name why something matters, people are scared of it since it doesn’t conform to the societal notion that to be acceptable it must attain a name. But life never attained a name because it always existed before the names even came. In terms of standards we have put upon the world, we say that it is human, that it is quantifiable and understandable. Albert Camus calls these standards, while not directly, an “artifice”, as a way in which humanity tries to understand the natural world. Artifice means to be clever or cunning to deceive, and the mere thought that the natural world can have standards is deceiving ourselves. Humans think they have the power to impose what they believe onto the world; putting standards onto things that simply don’t care or can’t be categorized. The standards themselves are deceptive because they make the power out of lies that can be seen through when you try to realize existence. The world is “hostile” according to Camus because we humans view it as manipulative, when in reality trying to manipulate the world to a point where it makes sense to us humans means we become ever more afraid of letting these standards go. We don’t know the hostility of the world because of the standards we put upon it, we just knew we couldn’t live in it without some sort of order. We are afraid of life itself because there seems to be no order, no standard to hold it to, and thus we cower. It is absurd. Humans are afraid to find they don’t matter in life itself because of loss of self-worth, and the inhuman complexity of the real world. Albert Camus calls beauty something that is partly “inhuman”. Humans like to see the beauty in the world, and you may have heard the phrase, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We can apply this thought to humans, as we previously discussed how language is trying to make sense of the world, and thus make it beautiful. So, we make humans themselves beautiful by comparing the face of a woman to love, which is a beautiful concept. However, this is a concept that is only applied to the person who sees love in the woman’s face, and to no other. This isolates that person, and Albert Camus says that they are, “henceforth more remote than a last paradise.” It is a beautiful paradise, because it is made of love, but it is love that only applies to that person. They are alone and the world itself “evades” them because this love is not universal, and the reality is that the world doesn’t care about human labels because human labels are for individuals. People won’t ever see the world the same again because the world is only as unique as they make it, otherwise it is as bland as the language and people make it. The self-worth of a person is based upon this perspective of the world and finding meaning in the inhuman beauty of the world, but no one will know how much it is worth because that worth is only found within the beholder of beauty. The individual. This brings us to the inhuman complexity of the world. We have talked about the individual perspective of the world and how concepts only apply to the individual, for how can anyone else understand someone else’s love for apples as exactly as that person? However, this inhuman beauty must be further explored to understand self-worth. It is very obvious that a stone is not human, nor the sky, or the trees. Stones have no eyes, no head, no legs, and no arms, yet humans say a stone has a face, or multiple faces. The sky cannot think, cannot feel, yet we say it cries and is dreary when it rains. Trees have no human organs, and no muscles to move, yet they dance in the breeze. The inhumane parts of the world are covered in what we call personification, or giving human-like traits to things that are inherently not human. This is done to explain how the natural world works by applying understandable human characteristics to the world around us. The world is inherently inhuman and hard to understand, so applying what humans know best, themselves, to the natural world makes it easier to understand. While it may be argued that personification is simply a good literary technique, it is a good technique because it is inherently understandable to humans. Albert Camus even uses this personification by saying, “the softness of the sky” which is an inherently human ability understood by feeling different objects and determining the difference between rough and soft. When it is impossible to apply this personification, it means the human has to admit that the object or concept may not be understandable. This seems like an impossibility because there are billions of ways to apply the human to the world. Life, however, has perplexed humanity since its inception. There are hundreds of philosophers, Albert Camus one of them, who try and explain what life is to humans and make it understandable. Albert Camus calls this absurdity, or trying to apply human concepts to something that cannot be solved because it is inherently inhuman and complex to a degree that it won’t accept human classification. It makes people afraid, because if we try and answer the question of what life is, we may inevitably fail. What’s worse is if we answer the question, because does that mean we disregard the billions of other people who tried to answer the absurd question themselves? The question of life asks to question humanity itself and the design of those who made humanity a collection of people bound by moral, ethical, and cultural codes. Albert Camus claims that the world itself is absurd, and for humanity to cope with it we put standards upon it to understand. Within those standards we apply human experience and human emotion to them, which are the basis of the human experience, so we can better accept and understand the world around us. However, humanity is afraid to answer the question of what life is because it disrespects the nature of the society we were made to live in, and humans are afraid to find that they don’t matter to life itself. Humans have created languages to explain the world, as well as standards, which make up our society and act as an explanation of the world. People have generated self-worth from their individual stance in the world and have found their individual complex understanding of the world and life itself. To solve life means to remove the human from the question, and that means people can’t apply the meaning of life to themselves. So, maybe the answer to life is the unknown, or maybe the constant moving forward towards an answer. What is constant is the unknown, and as Albert Camus says, “perhaps we shall come even to desire what suddenly leaves us so alone.” So we hunt on, in search of a goal that may not need to be solved for everyone, but for the individual.

I became interested in Computer Science by seeing how amazed people were when a program I made simply worked. I started my journey in 7th grade with drag-and-drop-based coding, and in High School, I moved on to Python, HTML, and CSS. Truly it was my teacher, Mr. Miller, who made me interested in computer science. He showed me a Raspberry Pi and the capabilities this computer had. I made a program that used a Raspberry Pi’s internal gyroscope to play a game on the computer, and he was impressed and encouraged me to code more. I took his Python courses, and after class ended, we would talk to each other about the possibilities a computer science degree would bring. He was able to help me lay out a plan for a career in Computer Science. He got me an internship working at my school district as a technician, and I now work there part-time. I will never forget the first time he sat down with me and told me that I had a future in Computer Science and he believed that if I kept learning, I would get there. I was one of 5 students in our school's AP Computer Science class during my sophomore year. It was the first time the school offered this class. After finishing it, I realized I had no more computer classes to take at my high school, so I moved on to doing online certifications. I have a TestOut PC Pro certification, and a TestOut Digital Literacy Pro certification from high school classes, but I took an online college class and now have CompTIA Server+ certification. I continued to code as well, enrolling in the Python for Everybody course offered by the University of Michigan. Python did come in handy for a summer camp at the University of Wyoming called Summer High School Institute, where I made many Arduino games. I then attended the Engineering Summer Program at UW, where I created a Raspberry Pi car, and was able to interact with facial and body recognition technology for the first time! Seeing real-life applications of software to help surgeons perform surgery and those with impaired vision grew my passion for computers even more! Through taking this summer camp, I have built up a large friend base with other kids who also love computers! Somehow, a friend and I were both able to work together and create an enigma machine, his in Java and mine in Python. My military connection is through my grandpa. He served in Vietnam as an E5 Quartermaster or a navigator. He worked on a destroyer and swift boats as well. He was able to return from duty and got a PhD in psychology. I have been grateful for him because he has helped so many veterans just like himself get through their return home. There are always stories from him about the people he worked with. Not all of them are happy, or have a perfect ending, but he was able to get to know them as people. I think understanding who people are and what they care about is one of the core values of humanity. If I can protect someone by making the internet safer, then I can make a better world.

My name is Chauncy Hendon, and I am enrolled at Central High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming. During my time in school, I have kept a 4.0 GPA while completing many college-level courses. I have passed the following AP (Advanced Placement) classes: Human Geography, World History, US History, Literature and Composition, Physics 1, and my favorite AP class - Computer Science A. This year I am taking AP Government and Politics, and AP Environmental. I have also taken concurrent courses at our local community college like Computer Hardware and Maintenance, Operating Systems, and CMAP-1950. Through school, I have learned my passions are both computers and theatre. I have been the light board operator for school plays for 3 years and volunteered at the local Mary Godfrey Playhouse. In 10th grade, I took control of the soundboard for the show Mamma Mia!, volunteering 140 hours watching and controlling 13 microphones. This year I joined our school's Speech and Debate team and I have been consistently placing at tournaments. Additionally, my We the Peop le team placed in the top 6 for the statewide competition. Computers, however, are what I am passionate about. The teacher who influenced the degree of my choice was Mark Miller, my high school's computer science teacher. I had him as my teacher for 9th and 11th grades, taking a Python class and a Computer Hardware and Maintenance class. He noticed that I liked computers and would talk to me after class about my future, recommending classes to take, computer science fields to explore, and how to get certifications. He was the person that convinced me that computers could give me a future, beyond school. I will never forget the moment he cut and crimped an ethernet cable and gave it to me, saying that I was going to need it for college – he believed in me! Mr. Miller showed me online resources to learn computer science concepts, like Coursera, TestOut, and CompTIA, which lay a path for a career in computer science. Due to his vision, I took it upon myself over the summers to learn programming languages, like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python, taking courses online and getting certificates. I passed two TestOut certifications in his class, one of just three kids to do so. Just this year I took it upon myself to do an online course at the Laramie County Community College to pass the CompTIA Server+ exam. Studying upwards of 20 hours a week just for this class. As a high schooler, I was the first person to pass this exam in the class. From all my studying and research, the degree I undoubtedly want to pursue is a Computer Science degree. Computer Science has a large, increasing job market, with pivotal government interests in the cyber security sector. With this degree, I can acquire proper training to enter this much-needed sector. Cybersecurity is what allows the internet to feel safe. With billions of communications happening every minute, the likelihood that data is stolen increases every minute. I want to ensure that the internet stays safe, because no matter what company or business I work for, the safety of data is paramount to keep people's lives from crumbling down. I want to look forward to a future where people continue enjoying the freedom the internet gives, and with a Computer Science degree, I can enter the web ready to patch every bug I find. With the Tammy Needham Memorial Scholarship, my goals for a Computer Science degree will be safely secured.

Out of all the characters from "The Office," I resonate with Stanley the most. While people may see him as forever bored and constantly uninterested in office shenanigans, I find myself realizing just how absurd my world is. For example, in the episode, "Costume Contest", everyone in the office tries their hardest to see if Stanley notices anything different about the office as everyone begins to swap desks, change clothes, or say random things. In my own house, I sometimes never notice anything different. For the past two years, I hadn't noticed the great big Christmas tree in our living room until my parents pointed it out. Not only that, I've drunk a glass of spoiled milk and didn't even notice. Well, until later of course. But when Stanley gets excited about Florida in order to be away from his family and kids, I see myself every day when I get done with homework and I can simply read and draw to my heart's content! While I may see myself in Stanley, Stanley has also helped me realize just how funny the world is around me. Stanley gets excited about only a few things, those being pretzel day and vacations, and he doesn't react much, if at all, to anything else in any meaningful manner. It is this blaze attitude to absurd actions from other people that made me realize just how dumb people can be! Stanley showed me all the other things that I can laugh at, and how not to vocalize that humor. While Stanley may never laugh to himself, I can look around me and find silly shirts, weird conversations, and plain bizarre things and laugh to myself without any fear in the world. Stanley's greatest ability is silence and patience, and embodying that in humor is what allows me to live happily every day. But there is one part of Stanley that has not been discussed: his outbursts. Now they may be few, but when Stanley gets fed up there is nothing he can chew to calm down. This is what humanizes Stanley, as being a bored office worker may be common, everyone has human emotions. These outbursts of Stanleys show that he as a person can deal with people only for so long. While this is funny when considering Jim wraps Dwight's desk in wrapping paper, it shows everyone has their limits. Whether it be in school, work, at home, or with friends everyone gets fed up at some point. While at work, problems may not be obvious to everyone and it's important to consider that not everyone understands other's thought processes when trying to solve problems. That's why it's important to laugh because while there are real problems in the world and the workplace, it can't all get you feeling down.