In August of 2008 I became curious about Ruby and took up programming as a hobby. Since then I have become curious about a lot of other things, and my aspirations have quickly expanded. I very much enjoy programming, and the open source phenomenon strikes me as a window into a sustainable future. I hope that in a few years I will be able to join the scene and contribute to that future.

My dreams and ambitions have been multiplied! In 2009 I decided that I would, at the age of 26, return to university and get a degree in computer science. To that end I began studying math, something I had never done before.

In summer of 2010 I enrolled in a college and began taking first year computer science courses. By this time I was completely roped in by the beauty of programming. At the time I hoped to be able to transfer to a university by summer of 2011 and receive my first degree in 2014.

Rather than transferring to a university, though, I took on an internship. A friend I had met through Elysian coffee, my part time job, offered to take me on as his intern in the spring of 2011 while I was taking courses. This internship turned full time during the summer, and I worked on a number of Rails and Mac projects, mostly in ruby. My love of Ruby increased tenfold, as did my understanding of the programmer's ecosystem. University transfer was pushed back to the summer of 2012, but my goal was still to graduate in 2014.

Having worked with a freelance programmer for some time, I decided that after graduating, but before entering the workforce, I would dedicate some time to personal projects. At about the time these thoughts occurred to me I became aware that Canada had established a working holiday visa treaty with Taiwan. I resolved to take advantage of this unique opportunity, and to spend the end of 2014 (the year I would turn 30) and the beginning of 2015 in Taiwan as a master-less programmer.

Ultimately I would like to use computer science to help "save the world". Once I have learned enough, I hope to be able to dedicate myself to whatever desperately needs doing. Whether that be related to energy, or poverty, or space travel, I want to be there with those people computing what they need computed.