As I look back on my life I can see how my hobbies and fascinations lead me to be doing what I do now. I've always had a fascination with technology, specifically technology that allowed for communication.
As a youngster (age 10-ish) I learned about this technology "Amateur Radio" (aka: ham radio). Its an old technology that's been around forever, and it allowed anyone to communicate with people with a transmitter and receiver. I was given a receiver as a young kid and played around with it, listening in on conversations other people were having.
A few years after that I actually invested in some "CB Radio" equipment. That's what trucker's used to communicate. I would ride around in the car with my CB unit and listen to the truckers and even try to talk to them.
Years later as a teenager the internet made its way into our house and I was introduced to forums and message boards. More forms of communication with people I'd never met, but I found it so very intriguing. My fascination grew and eventually lead me, accidentally (or through the grace of God) into an internship related to the web development industry.
As a college student I majored in web design and learned programming. After which I went into a much larger web development role and really started teaching myself advanced forms of web technologies and theories on programming.
Today I'm employed as a senior developer in the web world, and I still communicate with tons of people I've never met (and many people who I've only ever met because of the internet and online communities).
I realize this sounds like a pretty straight trajectory, but here's all the stuff I thought of doing instead:
- Professional welder
- Studio drummer
- Big machine mechanic
- Long distance trucker
- College level teacher (programming / computer topics)
I even said in my first job interview ever that I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to school for web design, or for welding. I was all over the map. But there was a clear theme of communications, and a passion in me grew for web design and communities. So that's where I am, and I love it.