Past - Present
Once upon a time
I cannot remember exactly, but my first coding experience was with the archaic language of LOGO in middle school. Or maybe it was BASIC. Later in 10th grade we began learning C++ and that's when I really got hooked to coding.
Coding felt cool
The computer lab at school quickly became my sanctuary. This happened not just because I was addicted to the 'aha' moments of coding. Playing around with code was certainly a lot of fun, but my affinity for this place was born out of something quite mundane. More than anything else, in the sweltering hot summers of winterless southern India, the computer lab was by far the coldest room in my school. In fact, most of the other rooms were not even air conditioned. It was an oasis.
College
With some credit going to that air conditioner, I decided to stay true to my passion for coding by majoring in Computer Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. Toward the end of sophomore year I started working part-time as an IT Specialist at The Disability Awareness Council in Chapel Hill. The rest of college consisted of numerous interesting classes where we did everything from using Python to analyze DNA sequences, to almost empathizing with a computer through Assembly language, to feeling like a hacker by simulating XSS, buffer overflow and SQL injection attacks.
Small Step Giant Leap
Working at The Disability Awareness Council (TDAC) was quite a small step toward my long-term goals, but a giant leap out of my comfort zone. There was not much coding involved. I had to interact with a lot of people and many of them were differently-abled. I did all sorts of tasks such as organizing physical and digital items, fixing workstations in the tech lab, troubleshooting remotely and on the phone, replacing faulty hardware like tablet screens, designing business cards and so on. Most of my tasks focused on improving accessibility to technology for both our staff and clients. My diverse experiences here contributed immensely to my personal growth. One time, I fixed and factory reset a donated computer, and a few days later I was helping a blind person use JAWS on that very same computer. It was a very fulfilling job and I ended up taking a full time position here after graduation.
The Entrepreneur
At TDAC, I also formed a great friendship with the executive director, Dr. Timothy Miles. He always urged me to stay true to the entrepreneurial spirit within me and granted me a lot of flexibility with my work hours. So during the first few months after graduation, I used my free time to work on a few entrepreneurial projects. I began brainstorming and creating app prototypes on Adobe XD. I started creating an e-commerce Print-On-Demand brand, and through this process I fell in love with using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create designs and mockups. At the same time, I quickly and organically grew an Instagram art-sharing page to 26,000 followers. I was developing an eye for viral content and learnt a lot about social media marketing. Despite plenty of failures along the way, I was adapting quickly and making consistent progress. However, something was eating me up inside... I was no longer coding as much.
To code or not to code
It felt like I was letting my true passion waste away. I thought deeply about it - should I go all in or should I recalibrate my focus? After some deliberation, I decided to pause my entrepreneurial projects. I had put many hours into them, but I knew I could create something more useful and valuable using code. I knew that success through code would be far more satisfying to me than success through anything else. I was excited.
A new chapter
My coding frequency had only decreased for a few months, so my skills were not too rusty. I have been learning new skills such as the MERN stack and improving considerably by coding for a few online courses and personal projects. And this brings us to the present. I am now actively pursuing a software or web developement job.