Hutchison 1

William Hutchison

Lecturer Debi Jizi

UWRT 1104-059

12 October 2017

An Outlook on the Future

The first thought that ran through my mind when having been

presented with a self-authorship essay was notably something

along the lines of well crap, might as well get it over with. Commented [DJ1]: of, Well, crap

But I assure you that the work I will attempt to present is far

from that initial thought. Through the last number of classes, I

have discovered what my character strengths are. Some even

caught me by surprise after finishing some of the tests. Luckily

for me, after finding out what exactly we were doing, my

attitude turned from trying to get it out of the way to

something along the lines of maybe we can actually put this to Commented [DJ2]: of, Maybe

use. One of my top and highest ranking traits is optimism. No

shock to the class after a number of times of sharing, I tend to

view life as something that will happen, but with enough control

to make it interestingkind of like a chess game.

In order for one to start such an essay about their future,

one must decide on a time in the future; for the purposes of Commented [DJ3]: Stay in first person.

this, I shall use 20 years, making me 38. At age 38, Im a well-

 Hutchison 2

seasoned adult in the working world. My working world and

environment are incredible, as in; my co-workers and I get along

very well. Before I started college, I worked in the Haywood Co.

Public Library. Everyone there that I worked with loved me, they

counted on me, and I had a huge amount of social capital built

up. At age 38, the case is still likely because my second

strongest trait is honesty. I will be frank with you to a Commented [DJ4]: Avoid second person, you.

degree. I subscribe to the theory that absolute honesty with the

human species is not the best; well say I stick around the 80%

honesty mark. My workplace will have me doing something that I Commented [DJ5]: New paragraph

love to do, work with my small group of friends or even on my

own to either help others or go off and work on my own projects.

I will not be working in a cube farm nor will the office

environment be entirely clerical to begin with. My workplace

will be contemporary, full of retro style or maybe art deco

style architecture. The place I work might not even be on land,

I might be able to work from homeon my boat. One of the number Commented [DJ6]: Comma splice.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagemen
t/2/1/34/
one goals in my life, that if you know me or my family members,

you know that I will want to live on a boat. So there I am on my Commented [DJ7]: Avoid using second
person, you.
boat working, developing software or working on someones

desktop either on my own or with my small group of co-workers

who are also my friends. As I work on this kind of thing, I

usually experience something that people could call flow or Commented [DJ8]: No need to use quotation
marks; these are well-known terms.
engagement. When I work, I lose track of time, because I am so
 Hutchison 3

intrigued in what I am doing to pay any attention whatsoever to

anything else. Building a desktop is probably my favorite task.

Fitting all the pieces together, getting the wire management to

look good, optimize hard drive placement and fan placement for

optimal cooling. I get into all that and lose track of time. On

top of this, people look to me for my knowledge, but sometimes

when I work and I am in that flow state, I have to go outside

and find information on something I do not understand. I dont

know what the future holds in regards to computer speeds and

upgrades, but 20 years from now, Ill need to look at the

specifications for the new NVidia graphics cards.

Something else that I find to be amazing in my work is that

since I get so caught up in it, people notice that. They also

notice that I know what the hell I am doing and can explain it

to them. Now, I will admit, that when I do explain it to

someone, they run around a 60% chance of getting lost, if youre Commented [DJ9]: Comma splice

a friend that knows me and will listen to me ramble on, probably

a 40% of getting lost. But its that knowledge and passion that

I will have in my work that will draw people to me that I can

help with. My third top strength is industry and diligence. I Commented [DJ10]: New paragraph

will do what I can with the knowledge that I have, and if I

dont know, then I will go find out. But when I have someone

come up to me and ask me a question about something, much like

 Hutchison 4

my family does (I have become the IT Support Desk for my family,

and will probably remain that way for many, many years), then I

get a sense of meaning from it. It makes me feel that what I do

is valued and appreciated, and every time that I actually can

answer theyre question; I feel accomplished. Someone came to Commented [DJ11]: Just use a comma here,
not a semi-colon. The previous phrase
sets up the main clause.
me, asked me about something, and I helped them. Awesome.

In those 20 years, Ill most likely chance upon a wonderful

female companion that will follow me in what I do. A

relationship will begin. Luckily for me, my authenticity,

genuineness, and (strength 4) capacity to be loved/love gives me

the ability to keep her. Even now, at 18, I find that I do wish

I had a female friend, I have lot of friends, most that I talk Commented [DJ12]: comma

to on a weekly basis if not more often; but what about someone Commented [DJ13]: comma not semi-colon
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagemen
t/2/1/44/
who is likely to go into a deeper relationship. At age 38, I

will have found her. She will share my interest in games and Commented [DJ14]: ?

computers, she will be optimistic like me, and she will love to

do things like me; go on hikes, swim, canoe, camp, and more. And Commented [DJ15]: https://owl.english.purd
ue.edu/engagement/2/1/44/
what will keep my relationship positive, nothing more than my
Commented [DJ16]: omit
shining happy face that can never be hidden for too long. On top

of my work, she will give me meaning to keep on with projects

that I may find impossible to complete. Heck, she might even

work on them and maybe even finish them. She too will love to

live on my boat, or I should say our boat.

 Hutchison 5

One of the top kickers for me in a relationship is trust

and loyalty. If you have friends, I trust you to go out and have

a good time, all in the good faith that you dont soil our

relationship and I can anticipate that you would do the same for

me. When I engage in a relationship, its because I found in Commented [DJ17]: avoid second person, you

that person a trait that I find valuable, and 80% of the time,

it is trust. I favor honesty, and thats probably because its

my second strongest character trait.

A job, a wife, good friends, and my boat; that is what Commented [DJ18]: https://owl.english.purd
ue.edu/engagement/2/1/44/
would make me happy. I would agree that you can be happy at

above $70,000 a year, and that you could be potentially happier,

but that is without connection to any monetary value. I wish to Commented [DJ19]: avoid second person, you

achieve a point in my life that I will have freedom enough in my

time to do my own thing, be it out of the work schedule or even

during work, where I can help people with systems they may not

understand, and do alongside a wonderful caring and loving wife.

I see in the world how people manage to find loopholes in

systems, figure out the cheapest way to produce a crappy product

and make a filthy profit from it. I wish that if I go into

business, that business be it my own or I work for someone, that Commented [DJ20]: whether it is my own..

it would be honest, and understanding. I would subscribe to the

theory that in my line of study, the customer is not always

right and that I know what the heck Im doing. My character

 Hutchison 6

strengths tell me why I am this way. I find honesty to be a rare

commodity that I constantly want to surround myself in, no gray

space. Optimism keeps me going, that when a task is tough, I

still can see the end goal. Authenticity, I look at life through

a lens where what has happened cannot be changed and if

something is the way it is, there is a reason behind it.

Industry and diligence, that I care for my work, that I will

complete the task top the best of my ability and as close to Commented [DJ21]: ?

perfection as I can make it.

20 years from now, I see myself in a state where I dont Commented [DJ22]: Spell out numbers when
they begin a sentence.
know exactly where on Earth Ill be hopefully somewhere where

the taxes get paid, the bills get paid, I have what I need to

take care of my family and maybe a little more. But I do know Commented [DJ23]: Consider revising this.
There is a lot here, and it gets
confusing.
that itll be somewhere that lets me sit back on the deck of my

ship, maybe enjoy a beer, and watch the sunset over the ocean,

with my wife.

Will,

You did a good job with this. You seem to have a liking for

semi-colons. You will need to break that habit.

 Hutchison 7

I like how you included your values and character strengths

throughout. I hope you did get something out of this assignment.

I want to hear from you when you get that boat!

I made comments that I want you to pay attention to. If you have

any questions, please let me know. You might want to pay a visit

to the Writing Resources Center for sentence structure and

punctuation.