Growing up, I always wanted to be in tech.
In elementary school, I would write fully-fleshed out games, characters, worlds, levels. Getting older, I realized how much games helped me anytime I was going through a hard time, how I was able to escape reality for just those few short moments and enter a whole other world. I found out how I could actually develop my ideas through coding.
By the time it came to apply for college, I had my mind set on one school—Rochester Institute of Technology. But my grades were well below their requirements, their Game Dev program was very competitive, and even my college counselor said it was a reach. So I developed a plan. I would apply early-decision for their Web Development program, a far less competitive one, to increase my chances and transfer into Game Design after getting my grades up.
By some miracle, 2 months later, I got my acceptance letter. Fast forward a semester and a half, I fell in love with web development. But I was having a hard time.
I wasn’t adjusting, my time at school wasn’t going as well as I hoped. So I ended up taking time off. Unsure if I would go back. I took that time to focus on myself, I got my first job at Chipotle, spent time with my loved ones, and grew as a person. After those few months I still wasn’t sure if I should go back to school. But I didn’t want to give up the opportunity I was given to attend school at RIT, so I went back for another semester. Not much changed, but I knew my heart was still set on web development. Speaking to my dad we thought looking for other options would be best. My dad’s an actor, and he told me at the time that he was in a shoot for a company that helped train software developers, the name was Pursuit. He told me to look into it.
It was a week before the early-decision timeframe was up. I got in my application ASAP. Somehow, after the many different screenings I made it through. I was given another amazing opportunity so soon after RIT, and I wasn’t going to move on from this one. I told myself I would commit to bettering myself through the program. And I did just that.
I did whatever it took to fulfill my dream. I would stay after class to work on my class projects, and passion projects and from there go straight to work. At work I would write out code, or ideas in a sketchbook I have. During my break I took out my laptop immediately to continue where I left off. After work, I would hop on the Q or the 2 train and the second I got a seat, the same thing. My goal was to make everything I did stand out. I wanted people to look at my work and know that I did that. But I also wanted to help people out, so on my weekends I volunteered my lunch hour to hold study sessions. We would go over whatever topic the other fellows needed extra help in. It wasn’t one-sided though. Because as I tackled those topics with them they helped me get better at public speaking. I was NOT doing the best at first, but as the sessions went on my confidence in myself rose, and I got better.
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