Starting a New Chapter with #vetswhocode

Mattie Fuller
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

I’m honored and humbled today.

The reason?

I was recently selected to become part of the upcoming cohort of the #vetswhocode program.

It’s a strange story how ended up here, but I’m thankful for it.

If you hit the link above you can learn more about Vets Who Code, but essentially it’s a 501(c)(3) dedicated to teaching military veterans coding skills to help facilitate their transition into decent civilian jobs.

It was started by Jerome Hardaway, whose story you should really check out because it’s quite impressive.

I recently found myself in sort of a mid-career transition.

I’ve been out of the military for about 10 years and in that time I’ve worked for a big insurance company, owned my own insurance agency, sold it, then became a real estate agent.

All the while I’ve had an interest in tech and web development.

I taught myself HTML years ago and learned very basic CSS, because I wanted to work on my own websites.

I also dabbled in other things like PHP, Python, Linux and a couple of other things, but never got too far.

My business and family took most of my time, so I never really did focus on it even though I was fascinated by it.

I resigned myself to doing the best I could with Wordpress sites, but all the while remaining interested in learning more.

And now I have one of the best chances I could have received, which is why I’m honored to have been chosen to be a part of the next class.

But I also mentioned being humbled.

And this is because I recently started learning JavaScript, and I can see just the tip of the iceberg of what I don’t know!

So my journey begins 9–11–17, and I’ll do my best to chronicle it here as much as I can.

Thanks for reading!

Mattie Fuller

Written by

I am an email and direct-response copywriter who plays guitar, sings, and writes songs in my spare time. We’ll talk marketing and personal development.

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