I am working full time currently as a programmer in a summer internship. In the fall I will be continuing school and working part-time as a programmer.
I believe that I want to be a professional programmer and someday a software engineer.
However, I am very interested in all the areas of computer science that I have been studying. I hear occasionally about how some computer science majors end up being "just programmers" and not "computer scientists." There seems to be a common thought that becoming a programmer means that you give up the field as a whole and the possibility of contributing to the field.
I would like to be a professional programmer, but also a lifelong learner in the field of computer science. Am I naive to think this is possible?