I stumbled upon this opportunity. Sometimes life takes you in unexpected directions… and this experience is one of them.

Back in April I was working a traditional 9-5 job, feeling unfulfilled, and not really sure where I wanted to go or what to do to make life better. I had been volunteering as a brand ambassador for the Dallas Entrepreneurship Center for a little over a month when a member of the community posted the opportunity to participate in a coding boot camp with Tech Talent South (TTS) onto our community Slack channel.

Coming from the generation that grew up with MySpace, I was intrigued.  Around that same time, I had attended a “tech job fair” at Tech Wildcatters and had an unofficial interview for their upcoming summer internship. A few weeks later I found myself quitting my job, taking the internship, and enrolling in the TTS part time program. Talk about a hard pivot.

Much like a wide eyed freshman arriving at their college campus for the first time, I thought I was going to come out of this program a coding guru. I was going to kill this skill and go rule the world by working for the CIA, Google, and Facebook all at the same time!  Little did I know JUST how much I DIDN’T KNOW.

It was like the first time you realize all the ingredients and steps involved in making your favorite dessert.  When you try to prepare it yourself for the first time you learn just how difficult it is to get it just right. Not only is it a skill; It’s a talent.

Luckily, TTS has got your back! They have built a community that is looking to support their students while they achieve their goals centered around coding. Our community organizer, Edna, is very well connected in both the tech and entrepreneurial community of Dallas. Our teachers are passionate and willing to dedicate their time to help. I am 4 weeks into my 8 week program and I have “learned” CSS, HTML, Javascript, Ruby, Rails, how to use Git and Github, and how to send core commands to your computer server.  To the veterans some of these things may sound trivial, but for us newbs this is all new territory.  As a bilingual person, I understand the amount of time dedication it takes to learn and become fluent in a language that is not your native tongue. Coding languages are no different.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to immerse myself into the world of coding this summer. I plan to continue practicing and nurturing these skills into something that many people will respect and honor. Coding can open countless doors and Tech Talent South was a great place to start! I didn’t know, and now I know… coding that is.