The Journey Begins

Four years ago, I had no idea where I was going in life. I had a goal but didn’t know how to reach it because I was always told to get student loans and go to college, then everything would somehow work itself out and be okay.

I couldn’t get student loans because I didn’t have enough income. Looking back, I am thankful because debt is a catastrophe, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.

Here I am, fresh out of high school, stuck in a small town worried about money for food and if I was going to be able to provide the cash for next month’s rent. Meanwhile, all of my friends are at college getting a degree and going to parties.

All I know is I wanted to become a programmer, and it felt like that was impossible.

It is weird being stuck in a position of wanting something but not knowing how to achieve it. There is a vision and a place that you see yourself at, but you’re not sure how to get there.

For me, the vision was so vivid. I could smell the coffee brewing in the kitchen where the developers make coffee in the morning, I could see the whiteboard in the conference room that has the CI/CD process written in a nice, neat, flowable manner.

I remember having this daydream as I was sticking my arm down into a 1996 Ford f150 to change the oil. I’m not sure if the smell of the old engine or the burn of the motor was what woke me out of my state of bliss. I just remember wanting to be a programmer.

That’s right, I was changing oil right out of high school … it sucked!

Where I come from, the town is small and so is the pay. The days are long, hot, and humid. If you are lucky enough to be born into wealth here, then you go off to college after high school with a full ride and no care in the world.

If you’re average or below, you get a job making low pay and live paycheck to paycheck until you retire. Then, when you retire, you rely on the government to pay your social security to have the basic necessities of life.

Needless to say, being a programmer is weird here. There are no code meetups or similar people who you hang out with who enjoy writing code and building startups. Matter of fact, the people like that have moved on to a better place and left this small town.

I was a misfit with a dream, a dream of becoming a programmer. Not because they make good money, but because I found it truly interesting. The interest and curiosity were driving me.

After a year of changing oil, I decided to get into the IT field. I didn’t care if it was cleaning rat poop out behind the server or if it was dusting the fans in those old Dell desktop towers … it didn’t matter. If I could put IT on my resume, I was going to do the job and get it done.

I looked for a job, anything related to IT but couldn’t find anything. The search was endless as daylight came and went. Plus, what was I going to do if I actually found a place that was hiring for someone in IT? It’s not like I had a resume with impressive past IT jobs. Well, I did, but the only thing on it was my oil changing career and those measly moments spent at high school, but we all know that doesn’t count as work.

As my goal of becoming a developer slowly sailed away into the sunset I began to panic. I figured if I couldn’t get a job in IT, I would just learn to code from home.

I joined coding communities online, did those boring hello world web apps with nothing but HTML, and even played around with some old computers I had found. I am so thankful I didn’t find an IT job because it drove me to learn on my own.

I learned a lot building websites at home and using online resources to learn different technologies. I spent so much time researching, practicing, and breaking things that I had to slow down; I was showing up late to work and was obviously tired during my day job. Needless to say, my changing oil capabilities were going down and my coding skills were going up.