I never meant to be a Developer.
I wanted to be a Psychologist, I ended up teaching. And now I’m a WordPress Developer. Part III of “Finding Our Way into Tech”.
When I was a kid, I wanted to go to the psychologist. Mom said I was insane, not really proving my point, but meaning that wasn’t going to happen. I also wanted to be a psychologist. Same outcome.
Funnily enough, I did study Psychology. And it was so fucking easy, my mind was into it all of the time. I like analysis, I like research, I like sharing, I like puzzles, I like how one single little thing impacts Everything and how Everything can have an impact in every little thing. I spend too much time thinking about The Other.
In time, those traits helped me as a teacher. I’d spent ages googling for strategies and resources, if not making my own, and I stopped printing them when I bought my first iPad. Later, I used an educative platform, I used web apps to catch plagiarism and grammar mistakes. And obviously, I was the unofficial troubleshooter-installer-designer-posting person. Because, you know, she likes computers.
However, I couldn’t have wanted to be a Developer. That was not a thing. I figured computers were something I’d better learn how to use and use them right and I’d always have that extra thing when applying for a job and at the very least, it’d make my life easier.
Everything changes, my environment changed and so have I. When I moved to the USA I realized it might just take too long to be in the professional position I was in Mexico and the idea of going through another version of the same thing didn’t appeal to me.
Years ago, I had heard a podcast interview with Adda Birnir. As I dived into the blog at Skillcrush, I could see myself there… I knew I wanted to do something in the waiting-to-work period an Adjustment of Status requires. And, one quiz later, that something became learning WordPress Development.
My proclivity to analyze, research, and consider the impact of little things and Big Things comes in quite handy. Everything is a puzzle. The Other occupying my thoughts is now my Client, my User, the Reader of my code comments.
It was my nature that made me enjoy being a psychologist and a teacher. It’s still here, making me want to connect people and organizations and documents and resources. If you’re doing something exciting, new, original, I want to put it on the internet, where everyone can see it. Yeah, you need a website and I can make it for you. Hell, I can teach you how to make one.
Everything changes. It was a shameful secret for me to have an internet crush in 1999. Almost 20 years later, it’s not unusual that I genuinely care about people I’ve only met online, that we are doing something together. I’ve been inspired by teachers, creators, open source collaborators, without us ever breathing the same air. My goal is to work online and most of us share that dream and it’s not even weird. It’s the best kind of insane.
