My Journey so far…
I have begun working on The Great Fleece, and no it is not about sheep. Although that would have been an interesting story Im sure. As I begin this new chapter I am looking back on what I have done to get me to this point. It has been a long winding road and I was never sure what turn I wanted to take, so I traveled down many paths to get here.
Before Covid-19, life was different of course. At the time I was just beginning to hone in on my developer skills and started seeing a path for me. I was freelancing as a Web Developer and Designer at the same time as being a stay at home Dad as well as working full time at a restaurant at night. It was tough juggling the different jobs until I enrolled my daughter in pre-school in February. Accompanied with a little sadness that I wasn’t going to be with my little girl everyday, I thought, “Woohoo!! I can finally more attention to educating myself to be a more marketable developer!”. Then….Covid-19 came along. No more school, no more work.
Our world has been changed forever, lives have been lost, industries destroyed, a forever stain on our planet and the people it holds. Covid-19 has brought so much pain and loss on us with no end in sight. This can’t be it, this is not the way our societies will fall. We, as humans, must triumph over this and come together to be the best we can. We will come out of this stronger, smarter, and hopefully with a better forward trajectory than we had before.
I was collecting unemployment through this summer due to my job loss and was applying for a million jobs a day with no success. I had to change gears and find a new path. In mid June I cold emailed a successful developer who helped create an innovative platform for job searching for one of the biggest sites for professionals in the world. He was starting a new project and I wanted in. I asked him if he had any positions open so I could be part of what he was doing. He asked me to do a project building a video recording app. I did it in one night and I was offered a position, unpaid, in exchange for invaluable knowledge and experience, to help get this startup to launch. I jumped on it and spent the rest of the summer learning at such a rapid rate my brain hurt. I learned React just by having to build pages in it and http authentications. I learned about how to use and implicate Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager all with my helpful friends Google and documentation. I got them to launch and then went on my way to find something new. So much was absorbed in such a short amount of time and I am forever thankful for the invaluable opportunity I had.
Now I have this amazing opportunity with GameDevHQ getting paid to be a Game Developer. Another time where I am absorbing so much information in such a short amount of time. One thing is different this time though, besides the paycheck. I absolutely love it! I want this more than anything, this is the path I want to keep traveling down. There is a huge world of opportunity out there to use what I am learning now and everywhere the path seems to lead from here is one I want to travel.
I have taken the rare opportunity I have got out of this horrible tragedy that has fallen on the planet and turned it into something positive for myself. If there is one thing to be learned from all of this for me is that while the world is moving fast around you, it is best to take it slow and take it one step at a time, maybe get a different perspective. Find opportunities where they might not have been before. You will get to where you want to be, but you have to slow down and pay attention or you might miss it.
