Introduction

Ever since I can remember, nature has always fascinated me. Whether it’s the tiniest insects crawling and yet causing mayhem, or the trees and all their healing abilities, I have always been drawn to the cycle of life. From the conception of a child to the ailments of a terminally diseased old man, I have always been amazed by how the body works and how all the tiny parts come together to make a functioning biological creation.

Early exposure to my passion

Throughout my primary education, science was my favorite subject and when secondary education commenced, biology became my source of joy, so to speak. I knew from an early age that the science of life was what I wanted to pursue if or when I got the opportunity to enroll in a university. When the time came and the opportunity presented itself, I was faced with the wonderful chance of actually being the best at it. My course of choice was a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology. To many this seemed like a challenge to take on, but with passion and determination, I knew that almost anything is possible.

Campus education

Attending school in the capital of Yemen was tough due to the myriad of distractions present, but my mind was set to beat the odds. My first semester classes were pretty general with simple biology classes that I was thrilled to have. The second semester, however, came with a different set of challenges. To be specific, one challenge which was Bioinformatics. This was a class that majorly revolved around computer programs that helped in the design as well as composition determination of certain drugs, biomolecules as well as pathogens. In a nutshell, a lot of information technology (IT), which for some reason, I had avoided all through secondary school. Lucky for me though, I had also taken a computer class the previous semester. Up until that moment, I had not seen the essence of the computer class. But with this new class, I had no choice; technology had to be my new best friend.

Biology and IT meet

This was the class that redefined the role of technology in my life, in that:

Apart from the use of IT to carry out research for the various assignments that my lecturers handed out technology had also proven to be an intricate part of my Pharmacology career.

If I was planning on being the best, I had to think outside the box and come up with new studying strategies in order to compete effectively with not only my fellow students but the whole drug industry at large.

The fact that I needed to embrace a computer program to design my choice of drug without having to carry out months of laboratory tests, on defenseless animals, was a major incentive. So I embarked on a journey into the world of technology so as to fully understand not only its role, but its various facets in respect to my degree choice.

If my education experience was going to be practical, I had to learn the nooks and cronies around the world of technology. The computer lessons did not disappoint as I passed that Bioinformatics class with flying colors. I can safely say that was the most challenging yet fulfilling class I had in my 4 year program.

Conclusion

The truth is that we all need to embrace technology. Whether it is offered in our colleges or universities as individual courses or even in my case as a general compulsory class, technology is the future. Who would have thought making drugs needed the depth of information technology that I received? However, if it were not for the grueling experience of trying to understand the marriage between biology and technology, I probably would not be the senior drug designer in my company, as we speak.

My advice to all is to grip technology. It truly is the future of education not only in Yemen, but in the world at large.