As a young boy, I was very curious about how things work and how I could make things my own. I enjoyed marble mazes and Rube Goldberg machines and even basic electronics kits. There were many moments of experimentation and taking things apart to see how they worked. Thanks to this curiosity I had, I absolutely loved learning about the inner workings and thoroughly enjoyed building and customizing.

When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I received a Rip Roar USB toy video camera and a green screen for my birthday, and I was introduced to the “inner workings” of basic video production and editing. I began making many videos with some of my friends with Windows Movie Maker, and then burned those videos to DVD and distributed them among my friends. While it was a way to bond with friends, it was also a mechanism to expand my knowledge in this field. I was hooked on the whole video-making process.

As I transitioned into middle school, this interest and curiosity only grew. I received a fancy new HD Flip® video camera for Christmas in 5th grade, and by 7th grade I had already made a YouTube account (for I had only just turned 13) for easier visibility and distribution of my videos. I was studying films and behind-the-scenes insights from great directors such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. I was buying books on cinematography and the art of film. I was delving into online tutorials for professional editing software and YouTube best practices for “creators” like me. I had even convinced my parents to buy into a monthly subscription for the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of software. This interest in videography was being taken to new heights and I seriously considered it to be my career of choice when I grew up.

In all of this, I continually looked deeper into how specifics of some of the processes used in filmmaking actually worked, and I was beginning to see that the filmmaking industry was not enough to fulfill my curiosity. The ability to make professional-looking videos was becoming too mainstream and common, and there was only a certain level of video-making knowledge that one could gain—I still considered that high-level. Also, after participating in what amounted to my first honest-to-goodness production - my high school spring musical, Hello, Dolly! — I was dissilusioned by the utter chaos I found in the process of putting on a show.

Then, just when I had no idea what I could do with my life now that my filmmaking career seemed unlikely, I learned that people with the right skills can just make an iPhone app and submit it to the App Store. This sparked my curiosity—I wanted to know how I could participate! I wanted to learn those skills! It shifted my priorities, so much so that even my YouTube page was being quickly filled with tutorials on how to make iPhone apps. That summer, when I live-streamed the keynote for Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), I decided that I would commit myself to mastering this uncharted territory that curiosity has helped me find: programming. Then I began to learn.

I began my programming career in the summer of 2013, with the development of an app for a religious ministry that my family runs. With its release in the spring of 2014 came an explosion of learning and experimenting, including the introduction of my many open source projects.

And this continues until today, with many new opportunities for learning experiences. As a senior capstone project, I designed a new mobile experience for my school’s student information system. This newfound knowledge of computing and software technologies also enabled me to work during the summer as an aide to my school’s Director of Educational Technology, as well as intern at an electronics manufacturer and an internet company.

The fact that my curiosity made me switch my career-related interests so drastically has helped me in many ways. I switched to an industry that will make me much more successful in life. Among other things, I have already been approached to teach a beginner tutorial series on a well-known programming language (Swift), and have had recruiters from the likes of Facebook and Apple approach me with job opportunities — and I and only 18 years old!

So, the moral of my store is: embrace your curiosity. Curiosity is not a bad thing. If you dive deeper into things that spark your interest, then you will find success. You will truly love what you do because you are personally invested in it.

This essay acts as my submission to the Activia Training US Scholarship, a $1,500 annual scholarship from a UK business training company for college, university, high school or trade school students in the US.