I'll try and simplify it by putting it in list form:
Found programming in middle school via TIBasic and graphing calculators, became obsessed with it
Never did homework, barely passed any classes in HS, programming became solace
Tried community college, same problems with committing to work, same obsession with programming and computers.
Parents had long since started to conflate my apathy towards education with my obsession with computers straining our relationship until I stopped talking with my father (who was a PhD from a 3rd world country, and thus couldn't stand the idea of his son failing at education).
Still lived with my parents while my father and I refused to speak to each other, so I went looking for a minimum wage job. I told myself it was to pay to move out, but deep down I knew I was accepting a future of working in retail for the rest of my life. I didn't feel there was anything shameful about it, but at that point it triggered a sort of existential crisis when I realized all my years of exploration with computers and all my knowledge was about to go to waste.
I felt like I had no purpose in life if I was going to be forced to abandon the one thing that I had a lived for since my early teens. Depression started setting in and I started to feel like I was suffocating
Get a job at a major retail chain that everyone here probably knows. But miss orientation because I wasn't organized (to simplify things) so embarrassed I don't call back (or so I tell myself, actually relived internally)
That night I get upset, wallow in self-pity, then get aggravated. So aggravated I decide I won't let my dream of programming for a living die.
Make a resume based on rejected I had done for free over the years for various people, spam every single listing I can get my hands on.
Over the next week interview at 2 companies, lie about Android experience out of desperation at one and accept an offer based on the lie.
Taught myself Android development inside and out every night and for 2 months.
Company didn't really have anything for me to do which was great for letting me learn in my spare time, but not so great for my prospects so I offered to replicate an app a contractor had failed to deliver on for several weeks.
I completed my recreation in a weekend, a few weeks later we find a show stopping bug, and I spend 1 week of 12hr+ days working to find, but we do find it (it was a custom Android image that had a watchdog that needed to be configured correctly)
App ships, I go back to having little to do so I brush off the app and start adding additional functionality. Also convert it to a white label application.
New application goes on to be our main Android product.
Solidify place at the company, start talking to my father once again, we reconcile our differences, he's happy to see me succeed, I move out.
A year later I go to the retailer that I had missed orientation at and see one of my apps running.
Found programming in middle school via TIBasic and graphing calculators, became obsessed with it
Never did homework, barely passed any classes in HS, programming became solace
Tried community college, same problems with committing to work, same obsession with programming and computers.
Parents had long since started to conflate my apathy towards education with my obsession with computers straining our relationship until I stopped talking with my father (who was a PhD from a 3rd world country, and thus couldn't stand the idea of his son failing at education).
Still lived with my parents while my father and I refused to speak to each other, so I went looking for a minimum wage job. I told myself it was to pay to move out, but deep down I knew I was accepting a future of working in retail for the rest of my life. I didn't feel there was anything shameful about it, but at that point it triggered a sort of existential crisis when I realized all my years of exploration with computers and all my knowledge was about to go to waste.
I felt like I had no purpose in life if I was going to be forced to abandon the one thing that I had a lived for since my early teens. Depression started setting in and I started to feel like I was suffocating
Get a job at a major retail chain that everyone here probably knows. But miss orientation because I wasn't organized (to simplify things) so embarrassed I don't call back (or so I tell myself, actually relived internally)
That night I get upset, wallow in self-pity, then get aggravated. So aggravated I decide I won't let my dream of programming for a living die.
Make a resume based on rejected I had done for free over the years for various people, spam every single listing I can get my hands on.
Over the next week interview at 2 companies, lie about Android experience out of desperation at one and accept an offer based on the lie.
Taught myself Android development inside and out every night and for 2 months.
Company didn't really have anything for me to do which was great for letting me learn in my spare time, but not so great for my prospects so I offered to replicate an app a contractor had failed to deliver on for several weeks.
I completed my recreation in a weekend, a few weeks later we find a show stopping bug, and I spend 1 week of 12hr+ days working to find, but we do find it (it was a custom Android image that had a watchdog that needed to be configured correctly)
App ships, I go back to having little to do so I brush off the app and start adding additional functionality. Also convert it to a white label application.
New application goes on to be our main Android product.
Solidify place at the company, start talking to my father once again, we reconcile our differences, he's happy to see me succeed, I move out.
A year later I go to the retailer that I had missed orientation at and see one of my apps running.