Personal Narrative

Spring, 2025

When I was younger my family didn’t want to pay for a babysitter, so they handed me an iPad. I Spent hours a day on that iPad; it started my journey into tech. In middle school my father gave me his old laptop, and I proceeded to spend hours a day on it instead. From gaming to writing code, it was a creative outlet. This laptop was the catalyst for my interest in technology, and to the point now where I have significant knowledge on nearly every aspect of it, and seen as a reliable source of information regarding technology.

During my 8th grade year I received my first desktop computer. From choosing the parts: the cpu, the gpu, to the case, to the monitors; it was mine. Learning to build it expanded my knowledge greatly. Eventually, I learned to create games by taking leaked games and dissecting them, and trying to figure out how they worked. If something didn’t make sense, I would research it. Seeing real, in production code helped me understand the intricacies of coding, and improve my skills. It’s how I learn to this day. A lecture on writing doesn’t teach someone how to write, it’s repeated exposure to proper writing that does.

I stumbled upon the exploiting community in middle school. People who would create code to gain an advantage in a game. What I learned early on is people in markets like that don’t act in good faith–it only took a few viruses to understand that. Going into high school, I shifted focus to ethical hacking, and eventually cybersecurity. Taking a cybersecurity academy reinforced that idea; however, knowing everything discussed in that class made it quite boring.

I lost interest in programming for a year during my cybersecurity phase, but taking Computer Science A and surrounding myself with like minded people re-instilled that passion. Writing code taught me to have patience, continuously iterate, and strive to keep learning. I recently joined the robotics club to challenge myself further by working in a team, across multiple different disciplines. Down the line, I will use my technical skills and soft skills that I learn to eventually move to leadership positions to help other passionate people succeed at their goals.