Finding my way and (web) developing a love for creativity
As with all folks and especially with those that find themselves changing careers during the pandemic, it has not been the most conventional journey through my career and my life as a whole.
I think to get a better picture I’ll have to start from the beginning. Don’t worry I’ll try to be brief.
Over forty years ago my parents were refugees escaping from communist Laos to find a better home. Spending a few years in a camp, they found themselves to small town Manitoba. They started over with quite literally nothing. They worked hard, learned to keep their own culture but to incorporate Canadian culture too. They provided a great upbringing for myself and my three older siblings.
I am so proud and thankful for what my parents did for me but it was a tough act to follow.
So back to me.
Growing up I loved math. I loved puzzles. I had an analytical mind but didn’t excel at the ‘creative’ pursuits like art or music (unbeknownst to me at the time being creative is far more than that).
This is also when I began my lifelong love of computers with Windows 3.1 and games installed from multiple 5 1/4" floppy disks.
In school I got good grades and had some options heading to post secondary education.
I was on track. I had my life all planned out.
I studied Mathematical Physics in university (riveting I know) but after a few years came to realize that it was not for me. I had invested a lot of time and resources in a career I was no longer, and perhaps never was, suited for. My world was crumbling and I started to tumble.
I changed my focus to Psychology (in hindsight it was probably to feed my insatiable curiosity as to why we do the things we do) and while personally fulfilling, it did not lead to solid job prospects.
After school I struggled to find purpose and my mental health degraded because of it. The self imposed pressure of living up to my parents and my siblings had started to get to me.
Eventually I stumbled my way into working in tech support and after some time I started working for an electronic medical records software company. It doesn’t really matter what the company was, what matters is what I was doing for them. I was given problems all day and had to find creative ways to solve them.
I had I had an aptitude for it and it felt great. Each new issue was an exciting new puzzle but there was something missing. I had found a professional creative outlet and I could feel the power.
I had taken some programming and computer science courses over the years due to my aforementioned love of computers. Some Java, C++, R, Python but it had never really stuck or sometimes my personal fears of failure pushed me to stop part way.
However, this job and the responsibilities I was given in this role allowed me to take courses and learn some SQL and had me dealing with databases and some server side solutions as well. I had found a spark…but something was missing.
I had come to realize that I love the problem solving aspects that come with the tech support industry but inherently it is a flawed one. I had the curiosity and drive to find solutions but found myself lacking the access or skills to do so. I had to rely on passing information along to the developer team only to see feedback for the most part fall on deaf ears.
I was stuck again.
Fast forward to 2020.
I have been through ups and downs both personally and professionally and the world has been thrown into a pandemic. One night, an old school friend posted on Twitter that they had graduated from Juno College’s Web Development Bootcamp and found a new career in web development. I was intrigued.
A new start? Could it be possible? It certainly seemed that way.
Web Development and the wide world of development has it all. The combination of the analytical aspects and creative freedom of coding and developing is intoxicating.
The old Steven would have let his insecurities and this invisible pressure build up to stop him from taking a step, any step in a new direction.
I am currently through the Web Development and JavaScript courses and two weeks into my own Web Development Bootcamp at Juno College. I won’t be satisfied with just learning web development and I am looking forward to a lifetime of learning.
I am loving every second of it and I am never looking back.
