Cohort Stories: Meet Albert
vol. 4, no. 4 — guest post by Albert Jackson
I’ve always used technology as an escape from the world around me. Some of my earliest memories are of the PlayStation I had as a child, and how I could spend hours upon hours exploring a world that someone somewhere had dreamt up, and trying to uncover every secret I could about them. I found it amazing that someone could make a world with so much depth to it, and that I could live through it as a player! That sort of escape was a saving grace for me back then. My family eventually got a desktop computer, the first time I had seen one at that point, and it was nearly impossible to tear me away from it.
I was fascinated about the kinds of things computers can do, and more so, the kind of things computers enabled humans to do.
They could be used for entertainment, for learning, and most of all, to connect people together. I spent much of my free time just exploring and googling random things that I wanted to know. You could only imagine my excitement once online gaming took off and I could play with people all around the world. Technology, for me, is something that made the world a little less lonely, and so much bigger than I ever would have thought otherwise. I entered into Bunker Hill Community College without any idea what I wanted to major in, hoping that an idea would pop into my head. Eventually, I took an introductory C++ course, and I honestly fell in love with it. I’ve met a lot of great people, both instructors and peers, who I got to learn and grow with. I took on tutoring in my spare time because it helped me learn more.
Computer Science is a recent venture for me, but I think it’s the one that currently makes the most sense for me. It’s really my first time peeking under the hood and seeing how things work, and it’s something I find thrilling. I just finished up my Associates in Computer Science, and I’m excited to continue!
Hack.Diversity is an opportunity to learn more, both about the industry and hopefully about myself. I still haven’t quite figured out what I’d like to do with my life, but I hope this opportunity will help me narrow it down, so I can find something I truly find fulfilling.
I’ll have a lot of options moving forward, and I find that exciting. There are a lot of people who have supported me up to this point, and I would really like to make them proud. I think there are a lot of things in my life that helped ignite my ongoing fascination with technology, but ultimately, I think I’m just kind of a nerd at heart, and I’m happy to embrace that now.
