“The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow” said Bill Gates. The internet's official invention dates back to January 1st, 1983, but was released to the public back in April 30th, 1993. From there on the internet and its users had grown drastically, when only being up for three years it already had forty-five million users. Of course, as we all know the internet has a lot of random things that make people forget about how much of a helpful tool it really is. What inspired me the most was when my father was telling me his stories about the start of the internet. He explained that when he moved to the United States of America, he was able to call his parents without paying for international calling, which had been getting quite expensive for him at the time. They had been mailing letters to each other for months prior, and my father had missed his parents. I couldn’t have imagined being so far away from my parents without much communication. The number of families and people both lower class and higher class going through what my father had gone through, alongside how that impacted everyone mentally was just baffling to me. Furthermore, as time went on, having the internet became a basic household necessity allowing for free communication around the world in seconds. This new way of communication has brought people closer together making memories and allowing for people to have online friends/partners. Not only did it bring people together, but it also brought for the availability in jobs for people who wanted to work remotely. The internet today is growing at an even faster pace than it ever had before with an even brighter future up ahead. Like Bill Gates once said, “The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow”, has never felt and been so true.

“The most damaging phrase in the langauge is: it’s always been that way” said Grace Hopper. Growing up, I cannot count the number of times someone had told me “It's always been that way” when trying to make a difference and implement my ideas of change. The enthusiasm given when stating that phrase was usually their way of telling me to stop so I did. Except I realized what that meant as I got older, so I did the opposite of that phrase and continued. While getting older I had found a knack for technology and an interest in how everything operated. From the way servers and networks connected to how the physical hardware functioned. Always finding myself using any spare time I can get to research and learn more about technology. While in high school, during my cyber security class, I counted there being only five females out of the thirty-five total students. During class I sometimes got lonely seeing the guys interact with one another, wishing that could be me. The few females there also felt the same, we just stayed quiet and did our work independently. However, sometimes I did enjoy being by myself and knowing that I was getting ahead compared to the other students in class. In the back of my mind though, I kept hoping that one day this would all change, where the females would interact together as a team and help to advance and improve society with our technological knowledge. Except the future of that feels incredibly dry as of right now, considering there is very slow progress being made for it. Ever since I could remember I wanted to own a business, I never knew for what exactly until a few years ago. I had figured out that with my knowledge in cyber security and computer science, I wanted to protect society from the malicious parts of the internet via creating a protection software. An ever-growing trusted protection software, that has little to no breaches years after its development. In the process of development, I wanted collaboration from females and males to be represented equally as a great asset towards this creation. Having my business provide equal opportunities for all who love and enjoy the works of technology like I do. Having brought this dream of mine to mind, going to college would greatly help with progressing towards them. Hoping to find like-minded and passionate individuals both male and female to help improve our society while making females more recognized for their efforts. Like Grace Hopper said “The most damaging phrase in the langauge is: It’s always been that way”, except it does not have to be that way and I want to be a part of making a difference for females in STEM fields.

“Technology is an incredible tool - it connects people to each other, creates jobs all over the world, and makes life easier for millions of Americans” and I want to protect that. It almost feels like it is my calling to protect something so delicate such as technology, as that was a human-created gift to the world. From a very young age, I have always found a growing interest in ever-changing technologies. I was so passionate about it that I would spend my spare time studying and researching how technology worked and operated. There was a detail in particular that stuck with me and how I viewed technology interlinking. That being how servers are connected with one another, certain ones being public and others being private needing authorization. So forth, when someone does not have the right credentials like that of usernames, passwords, or permissions they cannot gain access to that particular server. On the other hand, someone with those particular credentials has been granted access to that server and has been authorized. Of course, why would someone need access to those servers anyway? It's simple: some people need to work remotely, access company resources and data, or access particular server-designated programs. With this knowledge, I am able to visualize in my head how everything around me has a certain kind of connection like servers. The way people act with each other varies based on their personality. They have a public version of themselves that they show everyone, and they also have a private version that they only reveal to a few people. Furthermore, people go out looking for new places to discover, such as a new cafe to try, or your friend's new house. Looking at it like a server, we discover them through ethical tools such as Nmap, scanning networks to view what servers are available and ports that are open for connection. Needless to say, I also view college the same way. I had hoped to find and gain access to this “server” continuing my search for more knowledge and expanding my permissions. The challenge in my path is gaining acceptance into college and affording access to resources. With college, people like myself love accessing all kinds of technology-related information, hoping the endless questions and curiosities will be answered through a simple free online article. Of course, finding these free online articles isn’t easy to come by with the answers we are looking for. Likewise, how easy is it to find public servers that you have permission or access to?; presumably not a lot. The “best” and easiest way of finding information is through getting access to paid courses online, purchasing books, or going to college. It’s like having to pay your way to gain access to servers with resources. This hinders a lot of people who can't afford extra schooling, resulting in not reaching their full potential for furthering themselves. I can't imagine looking back on my life when I am older, knowing that my fullest potential has not yet been reached. On a positive note, if I do get accepted and gain access to college, I would love to pursue a degree in computer science and a minor in business. After college, I will be able to help anyone from around the world who has access to technology. Like the human-created gift to the world being technology, I want my gift to the world to be the most used and trusted protection software available on the market, having not been breached for years after its development. With this degree, I will be more than qualified to develop technology protection services combining both my computer science and business knowledge. Of course, I can’t do this all alone and I hope that by gaining access to college I will be able to gain access to like-minded individuals to help me give a gift to the world. Once AI Franken said “Technology is an incredible tool - it connects people to each other, creates jobs all over the world, and makes life easier for millions of Americans”, and I will forever want to protect that.