A study in right turns
Learning to talk and have computers listen
Other than a few random courses throughout the last few years, I have not spent much organized time learning to code. For the past ten years, I have primarily been somewhat of a social worker. I started down this path because I had a good friend who was studying sociology in college and when I moved in with him, that track seemed like a reasonable enough direction for me as well. Working towards a Sociology major allowed me to bullshit my way through things with only a general idea of what I was talking about. Plus I love to argue a point and was able to spend my school time goofing around, playing music, and skateboarding. I eventually got a BS in Sociology. I met my wife at college as well, so that was nice.
After I began working for a local social services department, I realized that I wasn’t much for sitting still professionally and wanted to try my hand in another field with some growth potential. I had just found out my wife was going to have our first child and stupidly felt that now would be a good time to quit my job, begin another education, and then start a business (because everyone knows that small businesses are easy and straightforward paths to wealth and freedom). Obviously, this isn’t quite how things worked out. I built a business catering to the local department of social services and assisting clients with job-related issues. While studying for a degree in mechanical engineering, we had our lovely first son and I had to bail on the education in order to focus on the business.
Working in social work can be personally draining and working for yourself also has many stressors. Totally new information to you, I’m sure. I ran (and still run) this company for a number of years and had another lovely son. I decided to grow some grey hair early and took up basic woodworking and bicycling to pretend like I wasn’t growing old too fast. The boys like to run around and beat on each other when they are tired of destroying our house and climbing on everything. But life at that point was relatively calm and productive, so I again thought that I needed to stir the pot and add some more chaos.
This same friend I went to college with had also gone into social work and had also had two kids. We still talk all of the time and I complain to him more than I should. Many of our conversations inevitably revolve around the insurmountable obstacles our clients faced and how depressing it can sometimes be to always be professionally face-first in problems which have no real solutions. At this point, I somehow convinced him that it would be a great idea to start another company centered on what we both felt was the polar opposite of the social work realm. So we started a hammock company. For the past few years I have been a social worker by day and then have produced unique, tie-dyed camping hammocks by night. Skylark Hammocks has been a blast and has allowed for some professional balance for both of us.
Enter COVID and the general state of the world. Working for myself as a social worker and outdoor gear industry titan (may be a bit of a stretch), I had been staying relatively busy and it seemed like I could keep this ball rolling for a while. Unfortunately, most of my contracts for the social work business dried up a bit for the first half of the year with COVID and even though we are doing fairly well with the hammocks, it is currently not a business I see paying too many bills. I decided I needed to change gears again and for whatever reason, my wife agreed.
Programming and software development seems like a perfect way to ensure future employability remotely and allow me to stay in the lovely area of Staunton, VA while leveraging a new skillset for companies anywhere in the world. I have always enjoyed building things (woodworking, hammocks, bikes, etc.). I thrive in an environment where I am responsible for figuring out concrete and actionable direction from an ambiguous set of problems. My kids have already started to ask me for daily updates about when I will be able to produce video games for them to play. They haven’t been impressed with the guessing games and mad libs yet but hopefully I can impress them soon. So that’s the goal. Continue to grow and learn in a new field, while trying to make sure my kids are happy and eventually make programs that will impress them.