Life is like a box full of curveballs …

I have learned along the way that life will always throw you curveballs. Especially if you think you have it all figured out. For me, the first big curveball was the day I decided to completely change my career. You see, growing up the son of an ex-big leaguer, I too wanted the same outcome. I played baseball my whole life; for as long as I can remember, a glove, ball, and bat were my everything.
How could I be anything else? I asked myself. Well, in 2013, I took the biggest curveball life had dealt. I decided that I was no longer advancing in my career, I was getting older and I hadn’t finished college. The simple fact was that I wasn’t moving forward was extremely daunting for me.
I decided to go back to school and finish my computer science degree. I know you must be thinking, “Why did he choose that profession? Especially after pursuing baseball?” Well, to be honest, I consider it a luck of the draw. Kind of like that feeling you have as a kid when you close your eyes and hope to hit that home run as far as possible. Well, that was my thought when I choose CS. I figured it sounds like something I would enjoy. Hopefully, it pays off. Fast forward a few years later and I graduated, received my degree and started as a full-time employee at a start up in Florida. The fact of working in the “real-world” was intimidating, to say the least. I was so accustomed to being outside, working out, and playing sports that sitting at a desk with a laptop was a bit different.
Life continues to throw you curveballs. What’s the next one you may ask? Well for me it was realizing that I had a new role in life. It was no longer striving to be a baseball player but rather becoming something else. As I grew in the field of Computer Science I began developing in PHP and creating different web applications for the company.

Which is where I began to learn about the struggles of user interactions, deal with unclear requirements and learn how to make code that was reusable and scalable. It was from that moment on that I was also introduced to a language I enjoy most, Python. For me, it was interesting to see how my mind transformed. It was no longer about baseball. Now all my energy was focused around learning code.
After a few years in that role life seemed to change and actually threw me a fastball….and I was ready for it. You see, I wanted to better myself professionally and explore my options. So, I decided to pursue a master’s degree. I came across the OMS CS program for Georgia Tech and decided to apply. Waited patiently for a few months until I received my acceptance. Suddenly things started to come together. I began taking the OMS CS program plus specializing in Machine Learning, which turned out to be a true blessing! Getting to meet other students who were in the same boat as me and were working towards their own masters, definitely helped me through the process.
I was finally feeling as if I fit in. I had a new career goal and I was even excited about where this new field could take me. My wife even started to notice. Her joke was that “aliens got into my head and changed my brain”, especially since before it was all baseball, now it’s about ML models, algorithms, time complexities.
How is it going now you may ask? Good news! We recently moved cities to accept a new position working as a Data Software Engineer in a data science team. Already only 3–4 months on the job, the learning experience has been phenomenal, so much so, that I feel even more prepared for my master’s program. So as you can see the world comes full circle or in my case full diamond (see what I did there?!). The game of baseball may no longer be the true definition of who I am professionally but its ups and downs, sacrifices and great friendships have taught me lessons that will stay with me forever.
I wanted to leave you with this important message: Change isn’t always necessarily bad, it’s how you handle the adversity. Dwayne Johnson (will always be known as the Rock to me) said it best via his Instagram, “sometimes your dreams may not be the best thing for you.” Whether you are an ex-professional athlete or not, you are in charge of how successful you want to be in life. Because you may not have attained your first goal/dream, doesn’t mean it ends there. Keep grinding and push forward, things will always work itself out.