Cohort Stories: Meet Amari
vol. 5, no. 10 — guest post by Amari Sisco
I’m most proud of the tenacity and the ability to come back from adversity that my family has shown. Growing up, I lived in a single parent household with my mom, and she formed a lot of my values. These values have been translated into my adulthood and into my professional life as well. My mother put so much effort and have so much drive into everything that she did. Now that I am older, I can understand how hard she worked to put me through school and ensure that I had a good head on my shoulders to move forward into the adult world. Since I am now pursuing a career that I love, I use all of the lessons I’ve learned.
I want to give back, not just to my family, but to my community and the people that helped me along the way.
I started becoming interested in technology when I was around 10. I got an Xbox 360 as a Christmas gift. Other than a TV and a home phone, this was the first new piece of technology that I could directly interact with regularly. While I loved playing games, I would always wonder and reflect in awe how exactly I could play games with someone across the world and talk to them with a microphone. Many people seemingly overlook how many things are in effect as you connect to the internet or play games online, but when I was younger, I couldn’t keep my mind off tech and how everything works. I was born at the perfect time to grow up with DSL internet, where we couldn’t use the home phone and the computer at the same time, but also experience a pocket computer with internet wherever I go. When I look at the world today, I wonder how you can not be interested in tech because everything we do is now using tech in some way.
I am motivated by all the hardships I have gone through in my life and all the people that have helped me through them — mainly my mom and my friends. Being in a bad situation makes you appreciate the stability and happiness success can bring a person. I believe that with the help of Hack.Diversity, I can pursue my goals and also help others in similar situations. I am also motivated by my desire to learn more about coding and working in groups. I’m excited by all the things I still have yet to learn. I’m confident that I will get to the where I want to be someday.
