I won’t lie, this class is tough for me and not a natural fit for my persona. It’s fast-paced and sometimes dizzying and it takes a mindset of perseverance that must carry me well past these initial weeks of learning foundational coding. However, from personal experience, I remind myself of the fact that people develop skills really well for things which they don’t have a natural aptitude all of the time, particularly, when they have to and when they really want to make big change in their life. I’m in the big change part of things. It’s not the first time and it certainly won’t be the last, but having at least a working knowledge of some tech skills nowadays seems to be the common denominator for a large range of interesting opportunities. This became impossible for me to ignore and, most importantly, I needed to feel relevant again in the job market.

At the beginning of this year I left a secure job with a beloved long-time employer in the now very cool South End area of Charlotte. It was exciting to see this area evolve around our business and many of our clients were people I saw daily over the course of nearly a decade and we had gained mutual respect and friendship over the years (it was a client, in fact, that told me about TTS). To say it was difficult to leave is an understatement. Let me be clear though, it was the people who were hard to leave not the job. That had run its course and it was time to move on.

You know the old saying “you can’t unring a bell?” Once I heard about TTS, I couldn’t get it out of my head. After a lot of back and forth, and an immense amount of support and encouragement over the course of a year, I took the plunge and applied to TTS despite the fact that I still had personal doubts about my abilities. Every day I keep going with the help of TTS. I appreciate the enthusiastic and attentive staff and that they understand that this takes work even for those who have natural inclinations for this.

When I’m having difficulty believing that I can do this, sometimes, the best I can do is suspend my disbelief in order to give it a fighting chance and to get out of my own way. In doing so, I feel more and more confident that I will have a future where I’m applying and growing what I’m learning, even if the job title is still ambiguous right now. I’m looking forward to where this may lead and TTS is the first stone in the path.