Corner cases

3 January 2020

There’s a concept in programming of an “corner case”. It’s a situation that occurs outside of normal operating parameters, yet is still a valid situation for the problem at hand. When designing a solution to a programming problem, corner cases must be taken into account. The solution must work when they appear.

When living abroad, your life becomes a corner case. Many systems aren’t designed to deal with non-natives, so simple tasks can become complicated. You deal with situations that few people can understand.

But the thing is, most things in life (especially the important things) aren’t that hard to figure out. I remember talking to my dad, feeling anxious about graduating college and finding a job. He told me something along the lines of “Look, you’ll find a job, and you’ll find a place to live, just like everybody else has.” Simple as that. Humans have a wonderful tendency to over-complicate things, so we stress out about the process more than it warrants. Despite living as a corner cases, people do the same. There’s work to be had, and places to live in. People find others to connect with. We get by.