My Story and How I got Here
Hello all. I guess an introduction is due here.
I’m not the “regular” tech guy who was raised on homebrew computing and BBS boards. I didn’t start programming at the age of 14. I didn’t build PC’s for fun. I didn’t “hack” into the school system to change grades. My childhood was mostly what I considered boring. There was one computer in my home and at best I played pinball and Wheel of Fortune on it.
I wasn’t someone who did wildly good in school. By 8th grade I was reading the class syllabus and figuring out the bare minimum I needed to do to pass each class. To say I skated through high-school by the skin of my teeth would be an understatement.
By junior year, everything changed accidentally. One of my close friends’ sister joined the National Guard. At the time, joining the military was the furthest thing from my mind. But the military offered me something that no other person attempting to convince me to do better ever had; money.
This was 2007, a time where there weren’t enough bodies to fill mission needs. They needed people and they needed them bad. My friends sister had ranted and raved about the money I could make in the National Guard and that took hold in my mind. I spoke with a recruiter, and had two options; Cavalry scout or Communications specialist. Given that I couldn’t swim at the time, Communications specialist was my choice. Little did I know, this would be one of the most influential decisions of my life.
After a fun but mostly irrelevant training period which spanned senior year of high school and the year after, I was in my unit. I was now being exposed to real enterprise grade technology and learning about maintaining the systems that drove businesses and the government. Exchange and Active Directory, routing and switching, all of it. So much stuff went on behind the scenes that I could never have imagined. I learned both in and out of uniform how to manage these systems solely because it actually interested me. This was my chosen hobby that just happened to pay money. My interest hadn’t honestly peaked until I delved into Open Source technologies and Linux.
I started, as many do, installing Ubuntu Linux on an old laptop out of curiosity. It was so new (to me), so different (to me) and so unique (to me). Everything spiraled (in a good way) from there. I moved on both personally and professionally. It was all so interesting to me in ways I couldn’t explain; OpenSUSE, CentOS, Red Hat, Arch Linux. Eventually, I pursued a career in managing/maintaining Linux systems and spent my off hours tinkering on my home boxes.
That’s what lead me here. I realized that all this random, sporadic interest I hold may not be mine alone. I realized that there are others out there just like me who accidentally fell into a career they loved. I intend to share my experiences with not only them but anyone else who may be tempted to take the plunge.
Live a little and take some risks, it might just work out for you.
