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Alexander Jensen

Professor Debra Jizi

UWRT 1104

11 October 2017

Future Authoring Essay

My ideal future is in fifteen years from now, after I have had time to accomplish most

things that I have set out to do. In fifteen years I envision myself being extremely successful not

only in my career and economic situation, but also in my social life and societal responsibilities.

However, the thing that I look forward to the most to in my ideal future is being happy. My dad

has always told me that it does not matter what a person does in their life if they are not happy

and the only thing that matters is if they are happy. However, to achieve happiness I must come

to terms with my past actions and have a positive view for the future. Right now, I would say

that I am happy, but I wish to continue being happy for the majority of my life because if you are

not happy, there really is not much point in doing what you are doing. My character strength of

hope helps me achieve a happy life because I am able to view hard or stressful situations as only

temporary and see a bigger picture where I am enjoying myself. A future where I am not happy

is not a future I want to be part of, so in fifteen years I see myself as being satisfied for what I

have accomplished, my possessions, and my outlook for the future.

Another important aspect of my future is the meaning that my work will have on the

world. In an ideal world I will become a very successful bioinformatician and contribute to

some breakthrough on genetic diseases. My goal in school is to achieve a Ph.D. in Computer

Science and possibly a BS in bioinformatics. My reason for this is because in my mind, no one
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deserves to be born with a serious defect that prohibits them from living a fulfilling life. One of

my values is love, and I love all life and it is really upsetting to me that some people do not get to

experience life in the ways the most normal people do. That is why I want to help people by

solving one of the problems that modern medicine does not have a solution for. My love for life

is one of the main driving forces behind my school and career path. Another reason I feel that I

can achieve a solution to genetic diseases is because of my character strength of creativity. I

view myself as an extremely creative person. I am always able to think outside the box and view

certain problems in a way that most other people do not. I am able to look at something boring

and see patterns in it. Creativity is necessary for anything that deals with the development of

new technologies. If something is easy to see and figure out, then it probably has already been

done. Bioinformatics is a new field; however, it is extremely complicated and there is still much

to learn and there is a high demand for creative people who are able to think of problems in

unique ways.

However, I do not believe that I would be able to solve genetic diseases alone. I would

like to help found a company with coworkers who have the same drive and motivation as I do

that works solely on solving biological issues using modern technology. One large

accomplishment with this company is to grow it to a size where it can have an IPO on the stock

exchange. It is a dream of mine to help establish a large company that is traded on the public

exchange. I do not wish to be a CEO or anything of that sort. I just want to have a large role in

the establishment of an entity that will ultimately go public. Part of the reason I want to help

make a company is, of course, money. Having a large role and stake in a successful company is

one way I plan to make money in my life. I do not wish to make the average salary of a

Computer Scientist. I would like to make a lot of money, so I can do anything I want. Another
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reason I want to help establish a company is the sense of accomplishment that it will bring me. I

think that it is very cool to have something you can look back on and say, I did that and this

would give me that feeling for my entire life. Finally, that last reason I want to have a role in a

company is for creating a way that people can get cheap access to medical treatments. If I am

able to help create something that can help many people, I want it to actually be used to help as

many people as possible. Creating a company would help reduce the price of treatments so a

family does not have to have millions to access them and reduce the price so that every day

citizens would be able to enjoy them. The most important trait for shaping my career in

bioinformatics is bravery because it takes a lot of make a leap into a largely new and unknown

field. The area of bioinformatics is still in its infancy and there is still not much that we know

about the genome and genome manipulation, which is a large portion on bioinformatics. It is

relatively easy to pursue a career in computer science; however, I want to go the extra mile and

be responsible for exploring currently unchartered waters in order to advance our understanding

of life by combining the fields of computer science and biology.

My character strengths are the core terms that can be used to describe my outlook on life

and be used to see why I have done certain actions in the past. So, it is safe to assume that my

character strengths will have a great influence on my future decisions. According to the VIA

Character Strengths Survey, my top three strengths are Bravery, Creativity, and Hope. I have

already talked about my character strengths of hope and creativity, but there is another one plays

the largest role in shaping my future.

For my personal life, in fifteen years I would love to live in a large city somewhere in the

South. My dream city would probably be Dallas or Houston Texas because they are large, have

a favorable climate, more conservative than most cities, and are large hubs of technological
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development and innovation. My dream home would be a large house on the outskirts of the city,

just in reach of all the activities that happen in the city, but not so close that you cannot enjoy

solitude and nature. Family is also a value that I hold dear to my heart. I would like to

eventually get married and start a family with my wife. Just like my parents did for me, I would

like to be able to pay for my childrens college and support all their goals. Although my parents

are well-off financially, I would like to help care for them and make sure that they are

comfortable.

Another goal I want to accomplish in fifteen years is travelling around most of Western

Europe with my friends. I have always been infatuated with the European cultures and life style

and my recent trip to Europe has made me even more interested. Curiosity is why I am so

interested in Europe because people view Europeans similar to how they view Americans and I

could not think that they are more wrong. I would like to experience the many European cultures

and see how their customs and traditions have influenced American customs and traditions.

Traveling around Europe alone would not be fun, I would like to have a few close friends with

me that I could share the experience with. I would also like to take my family on vacations out

of the country because I believe it is one of the best ways to learn and to be informed about the

worlds many cultures.

I attend a Roman Catholic church, which values charity and acceptance. I think that the

morals and values that church teaches has made me want to give back to society and help make

this world a better place for all. I wish to make enough money in my life to start a charitable

foundation that helps the disabled. As I said above, it really annoys me that everyone does not

have an equal opportunity in life, so I would like to help those unfortunate enough to have

physical, mental, and emotional disabilities that are not the result of genetic diseases by
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increasing their accessibility to new technologies that have the ability to significantly raise the

quality of life for these individuals. This goal of mine probably will not occur in the fifteen-year

span that I decided on, but rather be a goal I pursue after I retire. Charity is a value that every

human should possess. To be a good human, you must not only look out for yourself, but also

for those in less fortunate situations. I believe that my religion has played a huge role in shaping

the way I view life.