Cohort Stories: Meet Void
Boston: vol. 8, no. 80— guest post by Void Eboh
The parts of my identity I am most proud of are the parts I was conditioned to feel the most shame towards. There are multiple aspects of my identity (black, queer/trans/ disabled) that each function as their own vector of adversity. Any one of them is enough on their own to overwhelm one on their journey to success. Especially in the tech space that is so desperately lacking in unique faces. I have struggled through constant adversity for 10 years as I have tried to find my footing in the tech space. By any metric, I should have given up by now, and I have wanted to, many, many times. However the fact that I have persisted in this way, for this time has proven to me a single truth, that I truly love programming. And I am immensely proud of myself for this fact.
My first pedagogic love, was astronomy. From a young age, I would flip through the pages of books about space whenever I had the chance. This folded into an interest and love of science fiction. Along with this, growing up in the 90s during the second home console boom led me to explore this interest in video games. There I found worlds unlimited, free of the confines of reality and solely based in the realm of imagination. I spent years engaging in games about humanoid robots and hyper-sophisticated artificial intelligence. I wanted all these things to be real, and I didn’t see then, or now why they couldn’t be. As an adult, I earned a degree in cognitive science and human-computer interaction, wherein I was introduced to programming and since then I have been on a journey to push my skills as a programmer to the absolute limit.
I want nothing more than to work full-time as a programmer. I have been struggling towards this goal for a decade. As I truly believe it is my calling in life.
When I am programming, instead of writing code, it feels as though I am simply having a conversation. Code is, after all, an externalization of human cognitive axioms. With that, as someone who identifies as autistic, it truly feels as though I am tapping into my own internal thought process as I tap into the processors of my computer.
Along with this, as my mother transitions into becoming an elder, programming professionally would allow me to give her the best quality of life in this portion of her journey. And I feel that is the least I could do to repay the many sacrifices she's made for me to be where I am today.
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