So I’ve always been interested in technology but I never thought that could be a real job until much later.

I moved out to Humboldt County and was on and off homeless in my time there. I slept in my car on the beach sometimes.

I had 8 jobs in my time there and nothing ever stuck.

I eventually got a job as a Caregiver for people with intellectual disabilities, my clients would require 24-hour care so when I worked nights I had nothing to do.

A friend suggested I start programming because they thought I might like it so I started teaching myself Java when my clients were asleep. Eventually I heard about a Software Engineer Bootcamp called Hack Reactor and it seemed like the fastest way to get into the job market.

I moved 13 hours south to Los Angeles and found a place in Culver City. Almost every day I would walk to and from school, just over 4 miles, about an hour and a half walk each way. I would arrive at 8:30am and leave usually at 11:00pm.

The program lasted a few months and afterwards the job search began. I spent every single day for 9 months applying to 10 jobs a day. I got an interview for a company out in Las Vegas and they wanted to see me in person. There was only one option for me, drive there and back in the same day, 4 hours each way.

I heard back and luckily got the job after all of that.

My life has been very crazy and sometimes others’ lives can feel very linear. High School -> College -> First Job for 10 years, for example. It’s not bad, just different, and having such a vastly different experience means I have to adjust often to the average. Sometimes things that seem so big to most people don’t faze me so much, so I need to remind myself - they’re feeling this more. For example, I see talented people who want to do more but play it safe, agonizing over the perfect next move. From the outside they seem to have so much more security than I ever had, and part of me wishes they’d just go for it. Then I remind myself that the risk feels bigger to them than it would to me.