Like all good stories, we start at the beginning
It seems I should start with my first experience with computers, then progress from there. When I was younger my Grandfather was the first cuplrit in introducing me to computers, we would spend our weekends taking apart and repairing home PCs. He would take it apart and explain every single component to me, during this I would take notes and memorize each individual piece, then I would be tasked with reconstructing the PC. I was only around the age of 9 or 10, this is where a deep passion arose, I was hooked.
In came the Soldier who turned up the volume
During my early years my Step-Father came into the picture, he was a computer wiz himself he was an Intelligence Analyst in the Army for 20 years. Smart Guy. So he always motivated me to learn every single day. He instilled a quote in me that I live by every single day.
If you do not learn 1 thing, or teach 1 thing a day, the day is wasted.
This quote launched me into a quest to expand my knowledge about anything and everything. Let’s just say I am the best person to have on trivia night.
Quest shifts into high gear
My Junior year of high school I was a mess, sleeping in class, not doing any work, the posterchild for a slacker. Although somehow still living up to this quote, or convincing myself that I was. This continued for a while, until I sat down and began selecting classes for my Senior year, this is where all of the ‘cool’ classes were. I saw one class in particular that caught my eye.
Game Development using C++
Little did I know that that course would change everything. The very first week my first line of code changed it all.
#include <iostream>
int main() {
std::cout << "Hello World!";
return 0;
}
This simple output of a short string caused me to go to my guidance counselor and enroll in 2 more independent study courses, Java Programming 1 a high school level course, and Web Development a college level course. All in 1 year I completely changed my path.
College Applications
College was never even on my radar until the last semester of my Senior year, the plan was to just join the Military and call it a day. Well, I joined the Military and went to College, for Computer Science originally. My choices for school were extremely limited for one reason, Money this is what caused me to chase my coding dreams and do ROTC so I could have school paid for.
College Experience
Through college I excelled in my Computer Science courses, they all seemed pretty basic without much deep dive knowledge into anything. Much of it felt like surface knowledge I could learn with a 4 hour Udemy course. My mathematics courses were my main source of challenge in college, my degree required me to take statistics courses and calculus. I did well in my statistics courses, enjoyed it quite a bit, started tutoring students for the University’s Academic Services. I did well there, most of my students would see 20-30% increases in their exam scores. I left statistics behind for a while after Freshman year, and began taking more calculus courses, this is where the challenge came in. Calculus 2 was easily the most difficult course I took in my career, however I loved it. Working with numbers felt normal, despite the difficulty. This is the point which I decided to pusue a minor in Mathematics where I took higher level courses up to Differential Equations, however my favorite course hands down was Mathematical Modeling.
When I first heard the name of the course, I thought it was some high level Euclidean Geometry topic, I was delightfully mistaken. Utilizing all of these mathematical methods I could predict the future!
Predicting the future
During the modeling course I wrote a research paper which was about building a Player vs. Player matchmaking system for a video game utilizing Markov Chains. Markov Chains are fundamentally a way to utilize linear algebra to create predictive models for data sets. This is hands down my crowing achievement in my college career, I still tote that document around like a new toy, showing whoever will listen.
Graduation and Entering the Work Force
In May of 2019, I graduated Niagara University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with a minor in Military Science and Mathematics, and I was ready to hit the ground running. My fiance and I decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona for job opportunities, thinking with our new shiny degrees we would come out and make loads of money. Boy, we were very wrong, we ended up with mid tier, decent paying jobs we are not totally satisfied with. My fiance is studying to become an Actuary, this led me to begin searching for what I wanted in life, what was my path? I attempted to get a couple Cyber Security COMPTIA certifications, these never really stuck to me well. So now I was stuck.
The Revelation
One night I was surfing the internet in search of something, anything as a sign of where I belonged. It didn’t take long for me to put a few traits together about me that fit well with Data Science. I have a math mind, programming background, and a desire to learn, great I have an idea, how do I pursue it? This was where a slew of wasted time ocurred when I decided to ‘Just google a couple courses learn and try it’. I learned I need structure, which is where Flatiron School came in, perfect amount of support, structure, and freedom. Since beginning this course, Data Science and all of the topics just feel natural, they fit well with my personality and how I think. So that long drawn out story is the reason, or many reasons I should say for choosing Data Science.