Cohort Stories: Meet Yelsin
vol. 4, no. 69 — guest post by Yelsin Sepulveda
My interest in technology started many years ago, way back when, during the days when I used to play on my N64 and DreamCast. I was obsessed with those square, gray, plastic boxes! Every kid who owned an N64 would confess to blowing on the game cartridges to make them work with the console. And although admittedly we all now know that blowing air at the game cartridges did nothing to help, I remember it would lead to me wondering for hours “how on earth do the gold pins soldered on the cartridge able to bring my game to life? And provide me hours of entertainment?” Interactions like those would always leave me wondering and interested in how technology worked.
Fast forward several years and I was introduced to the internet! BAM! Nothing was ever the same again. I would spend hours on MySpace and YouTube as a teen, which was where I got my first taste of coding and how software development worked. There were many software engineers that started becoming content creators on the YouTube platform. The most notable one at the time was TheNewBoston! Sigh.. brings back memories. I would also visit many gaming websites that hosted games running on Adobe Flash engines. One such website was more of a community of “Flash” game developers — NewGrounds. My friends and I were always inspired by the ability of these everyday gamers to come up with game ideas and bring them to life for all of us users to use and enjoy. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I’m shaking hands with an administrator at my college as they handed me a certificate of completion for Android Mobile App Development. A few months after that, I published my first android app — BlackBeard.
My main source of motivation, without question, is my family and friends. They have always supported me through each and every goal of mine, from silly and sporadic to serious and planned out.
I also draw motivation from what inspires me, such as art and music, and often try to incorporate them into ideas I might have for developing new programs.
Another source of motivation has come from learning about the journeys of others, particularly startup founders. I’m driven by the desire to one day run my own startup. Like those before me who have sought to make an impact on this innovative industry, I get excited whenever I notice something in my day-to-day life that could be improved upon. Working on and planning out projects that will eventually be in the hands of users, and ultimately leading to an impact on the public is something that has always fired me up!
My dream job would be something along the lines of running my own startup. I want to be my own boss, helping my community and other programmers such as myself by creating jobs, and working on bringing my ideas to reality.
