I Quit Programming (or did I?)

At the peak of the pandemic, I decided to take a sabbatical from my stable job in software to embark on a solo road trip across the US while polishing my programming skills remotely full-time. Over 2,000 Github commits later and I can confidently say that I’ve made some massive progress from where I was over 5 years ago when I first began writing code.

I know, I know. Let me explain. First off, this wasn’t an easy decision. I’ve spent countless restless nights tossing and turning, weighing the pros and cons, and digging deep into my psyche in an attempt to discover what I actually want out of life.

The plan I laid out for myself initially was to put my nose to the grindstone, build out portfolio projects over time, and use those as leverage to land a job as a software developer.

I’ve since built out roughly a half-dozen web apps (some unfinished), open-sourced a Hugo theme and site performance testing tool, and even re-engineered the football simulation passion project I’ve been chipping away at for years. While none of these projects took off like I hoped they would, each experience brought me one step closer to professional status.

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