A Brand New Player
20 Jan 2022
Foot in the Water
My interest in programming began in elementary school. Like many others in my grade, I was exposed to, what I can only describe now as, blind web development. Creating my first web page on Xanga was my earliest experience with web development. As a 6th grader back in 2004, I had no idea what I was doing or how I was doing it. I can only remember copying and pasting code onto my site to make give unique behaviors to everything from the cursor, images, background music, and button presses.
The Shallow End
Fast forward 1-2 years, I was introduced to MMO (massively multiplayer online) games. I already had a lot of experience playing console games via PlayStation and Nintendo handhelds. This new form of gaming had me hooked! However, with huge player bases came massive competition. Thus, I was introduced to a new experience with programming… hacking. My friends exposed me to hacking and bot scripting to help ease character development and progression. Some of the earliest titles I can remember hacking in were Gunbound, CounterStrike 1.6, MapleStory, Warcraft Frozen Throne, and World of Warcraft. Similar to my Xanga experience, I had no idea what I was doing or how I was doing it. I merely went on to forums, copy-pasted code used for my cheat engines, and voila! A working hack that gave my characters infinite mana or immutable health values. As I continued playing games, I eventually got involved in modding legally with games such as Skyrim and Private Servers.
A New Direction
After completing high school, I had no clear goal in mind, just that I wanted to make money and live comfortably. After working different jobs, I landed a job as a bellhop at a Sheraton in Waikiki and there I remained for 8 years. However, unforeseen circumstances changed my current reality. When the pandemic hit I was laid off and placed on unemployment for nearly a year and a half. Instead of sitting around and waiting for an unclear future, I decided to go back to school and try to make use of my affinity for technology. Here I am today with my foot in the door and a desire to become another success story.
A Commitment to Success
As an up-and-coming software engineer, I want to develop my skills in creating applications of all kinds that solve problems both small and large. For example, I intend to develop an application this year that will assist me in purchasing a GPU as well as other components to build a new PC, an upgrade from my current PC that I built back in 2016. I want these skills to translate into a profession with excellent monetary gains. I also want to develop my ability to network with other up-and-coming professionals that have similar interests as I do. I know I have some catching up to do but I take it as nothing more than a challenge and character development, just like the characters I used to play.