When I was in high school, I used to think computers were for nerds. I was a skater obsessed with chasing girls with no time for computers.

It wasn’t until a buddy of mine convinced me to take a Visual Basic 6 class with him, that I realized that I was one of those “nerds”.

Quickly, I fell in love. The first “app” that I ever completed was a game that raced various animal sprites found online using a random number generator. We all placed actual bets on the outcomes of the races. Even the instructor got involved.

That was almost 16 years ago. It’s hard to believe how much has changed. Now I just build gambling apps on the blockchain instead of VB (I’m kidding, sort of).

No real point to this story other than that I’m reflecting today on my career in computing. I’m so grateful for that friend who introduced me to coding and I’m so grateful that this career path exists.

I hope you know how lucky you are too.