What made me want to be a developer

In the fairy tale "I always wanted to become a developer" I was never a character. I see people writing about how they have always wanted to be a developer, how they started programming as kids, and how they built their first websites in high school or before. Being from planet X I never touched a computer until I was 16. I was never obsessed with technology Instead I was in love with action movies until my 2nd last year in high school When the Matrix happened that's how I fell in love with science and fiction

I could spend my early years in college learning hacking and cybersecurity, inspired by the science fiction action film The Matrix characters Neo I believed all the illusions were real thus I was so devoted to pursuing a career in cybersecurity which I managed for some time. I could spend my first two years attending events, and hackathons that related to cybersecurity. I was very much into it that it was very hard to convince myself to get out of it. Unfortunately, the resources were a limiting factor and a barrier to my goal. When the covid-19 pandemic hit and governments imposed lockdowns I found myself idle at home. I relied much on library desktops to test my skills on platforms like Hack the Box, At home, my laptop was too old, and thus it was impossible for me to continue learning.

My final year was approaching and I was expected to present a functional project for me to graduate so I decided to occupy myself with code in the meantime. I went on youtube and just searched for tutorials on Vb6.0 as it was my college's most preferred language. With the basic knowledge I had and the youtube videos, I managed to create desktop applications and share my progress via Whatsapp status which caught the attention of my classmates and lecturer. These motivated me to make a working prototype of my store management system and this could spark an interest in development. I made some money by creating projects for other students.

When some Covid containment measures were lifted I got an invite to attend a 3-day hackathon. I almost turned down the invite but I realized I got nothing to lose by attending. I walked into a room full of new faces who were speaking technical terms many of which I couldn't understand. I could spend the next 3 days with a team of 6 developers who were already making good money as freelancers. I met mentors who were working in my dream companies. In the end, I was sure I wanted to be a developer because of the money. So I made up my mind and started learning Javascript.

On my learning journey, I discovered Bootcamps and Alx's one-year online diploma in software engineering that I was to pay for once get a job and that's how my life changed. Alx structured its curriculum to look almost similar to what an engineer does daily. It is the most challenging program I had to go through as it required me to spend at least 40 hours a week for me to get the expected score. I learned both technical and soft skills. Youtube,freecodecamp, etc were top on my bookmark list.

I stopped thinking about the money and started embracing the solutions I was creating. I fell In love with development. I realized am building solutions for real-world problems. I started to see the freedom that comes with the title and became more passionate. The more projects I created the more fun it was and addictive.

Final Thoughts

Money, Freedom, etc may have made me want to be a developer and stay one. The developer role is awesome, I am grateful to do a job that I am passionate about. When I look back at my journey I realize its the best decision I ever made