Assignment 1- Jasir Rahman- Summer of Exploration

Hey, I'm Jasir Rahman.  Happy birthday Mr. Logsdon!

This summer definitely expanded my catalog of interests that geek me.  Due to an injury, my summer's course changed its trajectory from that of an athletic experience to that of an exploratory experience.  Striving to stay productive I explored whatever came to mind, perhaps the only time I may have been able to do so as now my schedule is filled with homework and sporting events galore (come out to the soccer game on Tuesday against Lafayette at 8:00, it's our 1st home game!).  Nonetheless, I'm trying to find time for my newfound interests wherever I can.

Upon discovering that my mother had a subscription to RosettaStone, I was eager to use it to learn my father's native language, Urdu, which he had neglected to teach us for reasons I may never know. Whenever listening to conversations between my father and his friends or the occasional Bollywood film my ears perk up when I hear some of the words in my limited vocabulary.  Despite the busy schedule, I hope to be able to have basic conversations with my father and his side of the family by the time I graduate. 

On the subject of language learning, I learned the basics of web development over the summer.  My mother wanted a website that didn't exist (at least functionally for our area) and I decided to learn some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in order to perhaps make it on my own.  The more and more I got into it, the greater the challenge of making a stylish, functional website.  With every hardship, with every tedious line of code, I must remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day.  Again, with time being an increasingly precious commodity now that school is in session, it becomes more difficult to find time to work on the website.  I hope to have it done before December 2020.  Here is a link to my website's individual files as it stands right now: https://flaxen-copper.glitch.me. 

Finally, spending the summer researching the geopolitical and economic implications of the construction of Chinese infrastructure in the European Union was, and I think you would agree, the most thrilling part of my summer of exploration.  The UK Season Opener for Speech and Debate is September 7th and 8th, which kicks off an 8 month period in which I get to wake up at 5:30 A.M. on the weekends and argue about politics, the economy, the environment, etc... for roughly 4-7 hours depending on how well we do.  It can be stressful, annoying, tiring... but in the end we take dubs.