My first experience with computer programming began when I was in middle school. I always wanted to make video games. I loved the idea of being able to build a world that is completely my own. It started out with a video game called Warcraft 3. It was a real time strategy game that took place in the fictional world of Azeroth. Inside the game is a program called the World Editor. There was quite a bit to it and it gave me an insight to the cause and effect thinking that goes in to computer programming. There was even drag and drop commands that could be used similar to an “if” statement. I enjoyed it but found out quick that I needed more flexibility.

    I moved on to a program called Game Maker. This allowed me to make just about any 2D game that I wanted. It also used drag and drop but I eventually moved on to my first computer language. It is called Game Maker Language. Looking back it may have been better to learn a more mainstream and universally useful programming language but it was a start and got me hooked. At the time was really into basketball and was doing that a lot more than coding but when I wasn’t practicing my dribbling and shooting outside in just about any weather condition, I was making games. Some of them were actually pretty good and I wish I still had them but I think they got lost on one of my family’s computers that crashed. I then moved on to 3D game creation using Unity and C#.

    Moving forward to college, I ended up taking a class in web design. I really enjoyed it and combined with the fact that I found out indie game developers got treated like trash because of an oversaturated market, I decided that being a web developer would be the best path. I started out learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I moved on to libraries such as jQuery and backend work like node and PHP. I started working with WordPress for my content management system. I made a few practice sites on my localhost server before finally making this site with my own theme. I am mainly focused on WordPress and trying to learn everything I can about it. Computers are a huge passion of mine and what really draws me to it is how I can make anything I want on the screen. It makes me more creative and has taught me problem solving skills and most of all, patience.