Post/ A Journey of Curiosity, Code, and Coffee

1998: GENESIS

• Entered the world during the dawn of Google and just before the dot-com bubble.
• My first "Hello World" is an actual cry that crashes my parents sleep server.

2005: THE FOUNDATION YEARS

• Demonstrated exceptional ability to break household electronics.
• First encounter with code: mashing keyboard while dad frantically tries to save his work.

2010: THE AWAKENING

• Discovered video games and became convinced this is your life's purpose.
• First computer in my family leads to installing and uninstalling the same game 37 times.
• Accidentally formated family computer, earning temporary technology ban.

2013: THE EXPLORER

• Started modding games, much to the dismay of developers who patched those exploits.
• First "code" was a cheat code for GTA: San Andreas.
• Created a "revolutionary" idea that's just Facebook but with a different color scheme.

2016: THE APPRENTICE

• Teachers start asking me to fix projectors instead of paying attention in class.
• First real coding projects: websites that look like they're straight from 1997.
• Stay up all night trying to center a div, beginning my love-hate relationship with CSS.

2019: THE SCHOLAR

• College years: Realized there's more to programming than copying pasting from Stack Overflow.
• Professor asks "Why do you want to be a developer?" My answer: "Money and WFH".
• First internship: Spend three months updating documentation nobody will ever read.
• Graduate with a degree and the confidence that I know everything ("I didn't").

2021: THE NOVICE

• First junior developer job: Spend six months afraid to push any code.
• Celebrated by buying a mechanical keyboard that annoyed everyone within a 2KM radius.
• Learn that in production, "it works on my machine" is not a valid defense.
• Discovered the joy of fixing bugs you created myself.
• Pandemic hits: Perfected my craft of coding in pajamas.

2023: THE JOURNEYMAN

• Mid-level developer status: Now answering Stack Overflow questions instead of asking.
• Master the art of looking thoughtful while waiting for code to compile.
• Start mentoring juniors, realized I still don't know what I'm doing.

2024: THE CRAFTSMAN

• Senior developer status: Meetings now consume 80% of your day.
• Developed supernatural ability to sense bad code before even seeing it.
• Code reviews become my art form, leaving juniors both educated and slightly traumatized.
• Have strong opinions about tabs vs. spaces that I'm willing to defend to the death.

2025: THE PRESENT

• Full-time developer with battle scars from countless debugging sessions.
• Home office has evolved to resemble NASA mission control.
• Can explain technical concepts to non-technical people without making them cry.
• Dreaming of a startup idea I'll "get to someday" while continuing to debug prod.

THE ROAD AHEAD

• Potential management track (but I'd miss the code).
• Possible startup founder (once I figure out what problem to solve).
• Future conference speaker (after conquering fear of public speaking).
• Eventual wise elder developer who reminisces about "coding in the old days of 2025".

Concluding Thoughts

My life as a developer is a wild, bug-filled, caffeine-powered adventure. From crying in 1998 to crying over broken code in 2024, I've come a long way. Here’s to many more years of debugging, deploying, and dreaming in code!

Keep coding, keep laughing, and remember: every error is just a plot twist in your epic story.