why did you decide to become a software engineer?

When I went to college, I wanted to double major in physics and aerospace engineering. I loved physics in high school and my aunt had worked for NASA; she advised that I choose these majors if I ever wanted to be considered. One year in, I was miserable. I kept telling myself it would get better after college once I was in the field, but I talked to my aunt about it and she told me to expect a similar life outside of college. Although I love science and technology, I also love having a life. My advisor at college suggested looking into computer science because it had the same core courses I had already done, and this way I could still graduate in four years. I honestly knew very little about computer science at the time but decided to look into it. I talked with professors in the program who told me I should excel with my background, saw the ample job opportunities online, and researched the work-life balance. The last one really did it for me. Although it varies by company, many tech companies now lean towards a casual workplace and have the attitude of "work when you want, as long as you get your work done". This sold me. I loved the idea of having a STEM career and the ability to continue learning as I worked while still having the flexibility to do other things I enjoy. I added Java 1001 to my schedule the next semester and after just a few weeks in this class, I knew it was time to switch. Writing code just felt like following instructions and it was so satisfying to build something tangible in a short amount of time. At this point, switching to a computer science major was the obvious choice. Once I got to my software engineering classes, the workload was large enough to be unbearable if it had still been physics work. But with software engineering, even with all of the hours I had to put in to finish my projects, I always felt capable and like I could figure it out. I thought it was fun to try to make my code perfect. Because I had fun writing code and helping others understand their own code, I quickly became the top performer in my class. Basically, I decided on a software engineering career because coding doesn't really feel like work to me. I was able to find a match with a company by being honest about my priorities - although I love coding and will always put in time to make my code better, I want to be able to give time to my family and other hobbies. I now work on a team where I get challenging work but a flexible work schedule. I remember feeling so uneasy about the future when I was a phsyics/AE major, but it feels like everything worked itself out once I listened to other peoples' advice and was honest with myself about what I wanted out of my career.