Who am I?

Updated on 01.26.21

imMarisabel!

I had a longer story version. But now that I am busy again, I decided to write a shorter piece here.

Why am I learning to code?

A long time ago, I was a shy high school girl who spent her days learning to make her own website. Every month I would change the theme, just because it was fun to come up with new things to do with HTML and CSS.

This was back in the days of Geocities and shared hosting, rings, clubs, and link sharing. Way before social media was a thing, it was the way my generation was social online. Before… yes, before mySpace.

Forward a few years to the big decision of what I should follow as a career in University. I did not dare go far away yet, hence not Aerospace Engineering nor Anthropology. The campus close to home has limited offers on careers, most of then you needed to continue across the island. Finally, the Computer Science department was full of guys (the weird, nerdy, hormonal, or bullying because-you-are-a-woman kind of guy). Or at least that is how it was portrayed at the time to me. So I chickened out and went for a Psychology B. A.

As predicted, I did not enjoy it. I was not planning on continuing unless I could somehow score an M.A. in Art Psychology. Instead, I met my partner, fell in love, and moved to the Netherlands to start all over.

I was a housekeeper for a new hotel (the fact that it was new was the reason I didn’t mind doing the job). Then I was part of the opening team of another new hotel, and I loved every second of it. After 7 years in the same company, and 8 in the industry, covid-19 got me laid off.

As part of the compensations, I could follow courses and even invest in a whole new education. So my partner gave me the push, “why don’t you just do it?” It, being, the one and only thing I have always regretted not doing, learning to program (back then it was joining the CS department). Becoming a Software Engineer.