Video Producer to Teacher to Programmer...?

My Journey to Becoming a Programmer

How did I get here?

This is a question I seem to be asking myself more and more ever since starting my coding bootcamp at Flatiron School. How did my path diverge from working as a video producer to eventually learning how to become a full stack programer? I think the answer primarily lies in my personality, and I’m not talking about the Myers & Briggs’ personality types.

If I could describe myself with one word it would be restless. Whether it’s in regards to staying in a place too long, or doing something so often that it becomes monotonous, I’m always looking for the next thing/project to do. However, in order to get a better understanding of how I got here, we have to go back.

I was born in Peru and lived there until I was seven. When my mom lost her job, she decided to move us to the United States in order to “have more opportunities”. Assimilating was hard at first, but eventually, I became a product of my environment, a typical American* kid. Obvious terms and conditions applied.

By this I mean that I received the occasional reminder that I wasn’t really supposed to be here, either because of my accent or strange name. This sense of not belonging could drive someone to give up, however I forgot to add that another good descriptor for myself would be stubborn. My stubbornness to quit combined with my restlessness was a recipe for destruction, especially for a single mom. Luckily enough, , I eventually found my place within a clique of misfits throughout my teenage years and got accepted to college by the skin of my teeth.

Living in The Big Apple was always a dream of mine. Ever since I visited as a teenager and saw the city in movies, New York City became synonymous with ‘success’ and ‘glamour’ in my eyes. Not to mention that a city that runs on Adderall seemed like a perfect fit for me.

I was so infatuated with the idea of having a NY lifestyle that figuring out what I wanted to major in during college became a secondary thought. Given that I wouldn’t have to declare a major until my second year, I can state for a fact that computer science / programming was the last thing on my mind. Eventually, my restlessness started kicking in again and was telling me that I had to study abroad.

It wasn’t until my year abroad in Peru that I started to get an idea of what I wanted to do in life. During this time that I was “studying” abroad, I learned more about myself rather than whatever I was supposed to in lectures.

This is an important takeaway because I eventually would later come to terms that academia no longer interested me. During my Year of Introspection as I like to call it, I was able to explore a culture that was part of my identity that I had not fully understood yet.

It was through the photographs of the people I encountered throughout my travels that led me to pursue a film career. I interned as a news photog in Lima until I moved back to NYC to graduate with a film degree. After college, I landed a job at a production company where I honed and perfected my skills, until parting ways to become an independent freelancer.

After living in NYC for 10 years and working in the video production field for 5, I felt that my job had started to become just “work”. Call it a moment of clarity, or just my (self-diagnosed) ADHD, that led me to packing everything up and moving to France. My time in France ticked another check milestone in my “What can I do next list”. During my time in France, I worked as an English teacher where I found the work to be extremely rewarding, until that is when COVID 19 hit.

At this point in my life, I’ve hit my dirty thirties and I’m not the spry young man that lived life with no plan. I knew that the pandemic would affect my employment status in France, and I was certain that I did not want to go back to producing video, so I decided to regroup and get my affairs in order back in CA where at least it’s sunny.

During the lockdown, my anxiety was turned up to 11 trying to find something to do. It was then that I logged into my old CodeCademy account and started going to town on some JS. My casual coding sessions turned into a daily routine, and I gave myself stretch goals of what else I could learn on my own.

There came a point however, where I found myself at an impasse. I was lost, but I didn’t want to give up just yet. Eventually, the thought of a coding bootcamp crossed my mind. I figured I’d apply just out of curiosity to see how far my obsessiveness would take me. So how did I get here? I haven’t looked back yet, and I’m hoping to share my coding journey with you for the next couple of months.