CREATING MY FUTURE

By HAKAN BIN A. HALIM

 At a glance, the world seems to grow at a staggering rate. AIs, IoTs and automation are
taking the world by storm. Now how would Malaysia fare against the rest of the world in this
ever-evolving environment? To quote Klaus Schwab, the founder of World Economic Forum, “In
all moments of major technological change, people, companies, and institutions feel the depth of
the change, but they are often overwhelmed by it, out of sheer ignorance of its effects”. My
takeaway from that is to provide the right education for the right people with the right motivation
for our great nation of Malaysia to be ever ready to embrace these changes. Having said that, I
believe that I am one of those people.

Alright, let us start from the top. I was born and raised in Malaysia in a family of five. All
my siblings are boys. I’m the youngest with a very huge age gap between both of my elder
brothers. Because of this, most of my childhood has only been me and my parents and
occasionally I would hang out with my brothers. My father served in the Royal Malaysian Navy
while my mother was a full time housewife. We had to move a lot during my childhood because
of my father’s occupation. I have lived in Kuala Lumpur, Perak and even Sabah. This would
become the reason I have been to many primary schools during my primary education to finally
finish UPSR at SRI At-Taalim in Manjung, Perak with a result of 5As and 1C.While growing up,
I have consumed an abundant amount of western media and this has made me fall in love with
content creation. From an early age, I’ve tried to emulate so-called Youtubers like doing toy
reviews when I was younger and doing video game walkthroughs. I even developed a smooth
American accent. Though the quality of these videos were questionable, it still lit a passion in
creation within me. Transitioning to secondary education, I attended SBPI Sabak Bernam in
Selangor. This is where I finished 5 years of study and took my SPM. I got 4A+s,4As,2A-s and
1B+. During my stay at this prestigious boarding school, I was presented with plenty of
opportunities to show off my talents and even behold hidden ones. One memorable event that I
took part in was the Fully Residential Schools International Symposium. In this event, I
represented my school to present a given topic in front of an audience. We received a gold award
for our wonderful performance. This was the first time I’ve spoken professionally in front of a
large audience.
The chapter of my SPM closes and now I need to take into consideration my future and
what will become of me in the long run. Looking towards being a Youtuber or an Online
Influencer and making it my main source of income in this day and age might not be the best
move to play right now. I have to play with the hand that I’m dealt with here. I have potential
academically to excel. So, I went back to the roots and found what exactly am I interested in.
Computers. I have always been around computers ever since I was a toddler. That was it. My
fascination with technology and computers had always been there but it wasn’t brought to my
attention. My passion for creating and now coupled with my fascination in computers and the
digital mechanics of it has made me realise my preferred field of study. Enter, Software
Engineering. To me, this field has the fundamentals of design while having a balance of applying
science and mathematics to create solutions to modern world problems and produce innovative
products all in the digital environment of computers. Doing my due diligence, I have narrowed
down where I would like to pursue my degree and that is the world renowned Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in the United States of America. This is mainly because MIT is arguably
the world's best engineering school and people who graduate there have contributed towards the
development of the world. A name worth mentioning is Margaret Hamilton. She is considered to
be the first software engineer and coined that term herself. She was a part of the MIT Lincoln
Laboratory and worked on software that was crucial during the Apollo missions. She is remarked
as the pioneer of software engineering.

Based on Margaret’s achievement, it is proven that this field is not only bound to a
limited number of future careers but it is quite the contrary. Especially in this era of digitalisation
where everything and everyone is connected through a vast interrelated network we call the
internet, most industries now have incorporated the use of software and programming in their
systems to greatly improve quality of life for consumers and producers alike. This is why I am so
passionate about this field. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that jobs in software
development will increase in the next 10 years by about 25%. In Malaysia, more jobs in this field
have opened up as well. I plan to innovate Malaysia even further in the digital world. This is
done by developing and maintaining programs that help reaffirm the fundamental infrastructure
in the country such as developing automated train systems that are calibrated to always be on
time and efficient. Small upgrades like this are paramount to the grand scheme of Malaysia’s
technological advancements and becoming a great country. This is one example of where I could
funnel my expertise and experience that I have gained from being at MIT.

To conclude this essay, I aspire to become the person to lead Malaysia in the development
of technology to ensure this country becomes a competitor towards the rest of the world in this
environment that never ceases to grow and evolve over time. Wise words from John C. Maxwell,
a famous American writer and speaker, “ Success is a continuing thing. It is growth and
development. It is achieving one thing and using that as a stepping stone to achieve something
else.”. What I take from this quote is that even doing something small, if it is productive, it is
progress. These little things will amount to achieving a larger victory down the road. My hopes
for the future are for me to consistently put in the work to achieve that dream of making this
country a technologically advanced one. And it all starts here.