Here I am sitting at home on a rainy Saturday, so I thought I'd share my story. It's nothing special, but that's the point. And maybe it could inspire someone else who is worried about changing gears in their life to make that leap. It's never too late to learn something new, to change and to grow.
If you had told me when I was younger that I'd someday be writing code, building software, experimenting with AI models, and going to college for IT, I probably would have laughed at you.
Not because I thought those things were impossible, but because I never imagined myself doing any of them.
Funny how life works out sometimes.
I grew up around computers. I just didn't care that much.
My dad was a programmer.
And not just someone who tinkered with computers as a hobby. He was pretty well known for his work in our area. He'd even been featured in the newspaper for some of the things he'd created. My dad also often created little personalized learning games for me to play when I was very young.
So computers weren't exactly unfamiliar territory in my house.
I had an IBM computer when I was a kid. I knew my way around DOS, and I even made some little text-based games.
This was back when using a computer meant knowing at least a little bit about what you were doing. There weren't pretty interfaces for everything, and you couldn't just click a button and expect things to happen.
I also had friends who ran their own bulletin board systems (BBSs). One of those friends eventually became my husband.
Looking back, it's kind of funny how much technology was around me growing up.
You'd think I would have naturally followed in my dad's footsteps.
Nope.
I was much more interested in animals.
I took a completely different path
I wasn't exactly a model student in high school.
Actually, that's putting it nicely.
I slacked off, stayed back, dropped out at 17, and got my GED.
I wasn't thinking about college or careers in technology. I just wanted to get out into the world and start working.
And that's what I did.
I did attend one year of community college years later, but of course, never finished.
I ended up spending most of my working life with animals, which was something I'd always loved. I was a dog and cat groomer, and a veterinary assistant. I genuinely enjoyed all of that.
Honestly, I still think animals are easier to get along with than people most of the time.
I'm not exactly the world's biggest people person.
I know my dad was disappointed that I didn't pursue programming or something related to computers. And I can understand that now, looking back. He had this whole world of knowledge and experience that he probably would have loved to share with me.
But at the time, I just wasn't interested.
I had my own path, and it went in a completely different direction.
Eventually, I got married, had my kids, and spent a few years as a stay-at-home mom.
Computers were still part of my life, of course, but not in any particularly interesting way.
I usually had a halfway decent laptop. Nothing fancy. Just something I could use for social media, browsing the internet, and playing whatever games it could manage to run.
Programming wasn't even on my radar.
Somehow, I became someone who writes code
Things really took off when I got my first actually good computer.
I don't think there was one specific moment when I decided I wanted to become a programmer.
It happened gradually.
I'd get curious about something, try to figure out how to do it, and then get another idea.
I started experimenting with little scripts and automations. Nothing particularly impressive at first, but every time I figured something out, I wanted to try something else.
One experiment turned into another.
A little script turned into a small project.
And before I knew it, I was starting to learn programming languages, building applications, working with APIs, and spending ridiculous amounts of time figuring out why something wasn't working.
And the strangest part?
I actually loved it.
Not every minute, obviously. There have been plenty of times I've wanted to throw my computer out a window.
But I love making things.
I love having an idea and figuring out how to turn it into something real.
I love learning how software works, even when the process involves hours of confusion, a dozen open browser tabs, and discovering that the problem was something embarrassingly simple.
ChatGPT
I still remember how fascinating it was when ChatGPT first appeared.
Here was this thing that I could actually have a conversation with.
I could ask it questions. I could get it to write things. I could generate random cat pictures. I could even ask it to write little scripts that would automate things on my computer.
At the time, that absolutely blew my mind.
I know that probably sounds funny now, considering how much AI has changed in just a few years.
But back then, it felt like discovering an entirely new world.
And I started getting curious.
Not just about what these tools could do, but about how they worked and what else I could make them do.
AI opened up so many more possibilities. It gave me a starting point when I wanted to learn something new. It made experimenting accessible, and provided me with a constant tutor that was there to answer questions and explain things as often as I needed.
At some point I started experimenting with training and fine-tuning small language models.
I worked with technologies I didn't even know existed a few years ago.
I was excited about learning more.
Going back to school was another surprise
As if discovering a love for programming wasn't unexpected enough, I eventually decided to enroll in college.
For IT.
Me.
If you'd told teenage me that I'd voluntarily go back to school someday, I probably would have thought you'd lost your mind.
But here I am.
I've been attending college online for awhile now, I'm in the honor society, and I've been genuinely enjoying learning new things that I never would have imagined myself studying.
And I'm proud of that.
Not because I think having a degree or being in an honor society makes someone more capable. There are plenty of incredibly talented developers who never went to college.
But because it's something I never believed I'd do.
That's still a little surreal to me.
Maybe we don't have to figure everything out when we're young
I think one of the biggest things I've learned from all of this is that we put way too much pressure on people to figure out what they want to do with their lives when they're young.
I certainly didn't have it figured out.
I didn't take the traditional route into technology. I didn't spend my teenage years dreaming about becoming a software developer. I didn't go straight from high school to college and into a tech career.
I spent years doing something entirely different.
And I don't regret that.
Working with animals was something I genuinely loved, and being home with my kids was an important part of my life.
Those years weren't wasted. They were my life.
And somewhere along the way, I found a new passion that I never saw coming.
Life has a funny way of coming full circle
Sometimes I look at what I’m building now and just laugh.
The girl who grew up with a programmer dad, and couldn't have cared less about his computers, is now spending her days deep in code. When I tell him what I’m up to these days, I honestly don’t think he fully believes it.
But that might be the best part of this whole journey.
You don’t have to have your life mapped out at 17, or 25, or 35. You can pivot hard into something that once seemed completely out of reach.
I still have moments where I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. And yes, I still prefer animals to most people. Some things never change.
But I found a world I love making things in, and honestly, I'm just excited to see what comes next.
Top comments (10)
What drew me in was the ability to get stuck on trying to fix something or figure something out, and the satisfaction that follows after it is working! I noticed that I do not think about all my earthly problems when I am three levels deep in a thought process. It is an escape from reality that makes the time disappear. My biggest issue has been that I stick my nose into everything. Jack of all trades, master of nothing! Everything is interesting. It is a real problem. XD
I come from an art and nutrition background. The art stayed, the nutrition did not. I don't like telling people what to eat or how they should live their life, and honestly, from what I've heard, the ones that need to listen tend to not. So I gave myself some resolve on closing that door for the most part. But art will always be a part of my life.
I feel this on so many levels. When people asked me what I wanted to do when I got older, I never really had a great answer. I went to college and all that as it was "the path". I graduated, collected debt, and I've returned. 🤣 Some of us just have that "there has got to be more, what else is there?" attitude about life. The journey itself is likely the answer.
I once had someone tell me "why would anyone hire you? you don't even have a C.S. degree." That stuck with me, and I'm 75% done on my way to prove them wrong. Here's to degree number 2! XD A degree? so what, that's just a piece of documentation. No problem. XD
I am happy to see someone else on here from a non-traditional standpoint. P.S. my dad is smart too, he is retired, but was an engineer for decades. :)
Thank you so much for this comment. I relate to a lot of what you said, especially getting so deep into figuring something out that everything else disappears for a while. That feeling of finally getting something working really is hard to beat.
And about people expecting you to know exactly what you want to do when you’re young... I think a lot of us end up taking the long way around, and honestly that’s not a bad thing. It all becomes part of how we see the world and what we bring into the things we build. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to get where you're going, the point is you get there eventually.
And good for you for proving that person wrong. I love that. There’s something really satisfying about building your own path, especially when it doesn’t look traditional on paper. Also I had to smile at the dad part too. I guess we have that in common. Thank you again. 💜
Fascinating! You have overcome challenges and landed on something you love! That’s my takeaway! I came from a different part of the world where I heard more of “No you cannot do it” and handful of “You can do this”, yet the stubborn me never gave up. I survived a complicated birth in a so called 3rd world and yet survived (that’s another story for a different day) and I have carried that spirit for nearly 5 decades now
You will inspire people and keep doing what you love and there is more ahead of you. That’s the beauty about computers, science, math and AI - they are helping equalize, they are enablers, if you just have the desire+passion and access, you can do this! You keep doing what you love, where you came from has started mattering less, and where you are going is what is mattering! Looking forward to more inspiring articles
Thank you so much for reading and the thoughtful comment. I really appreciate you sharing a little of your own story, too. It sounds like you've overcome quite a lot yourself, and I love that you've carried that determination with you all these years. I completely agree that technology can open doors for people who might never have imagined those opportunities were available to them. I certainly never expected to be doing what I'm doing now. Life really does have a funny way of surprising us. Thank you again for the encouragement. It means a lot!
You keep going and doing your thing! There are lots of us, who continue to see you as inspiration. God bless and Godspeed!
This resonated, especially the part about there never being one big decision moment — just one small script turning into a project, then another. That gradual pull feels much closer to how real career changes happen than the overnight-pivot stories. And going back to school for IT after years away, and landing in the honor society, is a great detail. It shows the years working with animals and raising your kids were not a detour; they were part of how you got here. Thanks for writing this so plainly — it will land with someone who needs to hear that it is not too late.
Thank you so much! I think that's one of the biggest things I've learned through all of this. Life doesn't always follow some nice, straight path, and that's perfectly okay. I never would have imagined I'd end up where I am now, but I'm so glad I followed that curiosity when it showed up. And I wouldn't trade all those years doing other things either. They were just as important. I really hope this reaches someone who's thinking about starting something new but feels like they've missed their chance, because they absolutely haven't. I really appreciate your kind words!
One interesting thing about learning programming later in life is that you often bring a different kind of problem-solving experience with you. That becomes especially useful when debugging complex systems. For example, tracing a race condition across asynchronous API calls requires more than knowing syntax; it takes patience, observation, and the ability to connect seemingly unrelated events. Those skills can come from experiences far beyond coding. Great journey!
Thank you! I totally agree with that. We sometimes underestimate our experience in totally different areas of life, which we can apply in programming as well. Patience, ability to figure things out even if everything seems unclear at first, attention to detail – all this was gained from experience way before I even started coding. The technical knowledge is new, but a lot of the problem-solving mindset really isn't.
This one got me, so forgive a longer reply than usual.
I was fascinated by computers as a kid, and I’ve loved sci-fi and futuristic tech films my whole life. Still do. But where I’m from, the oil boom was the thing, so by the time I had to choose, I chose geology.
Then the path went sideways, in the best way. Degree in geology, and my first job was as a Linux administrator. I enjoyed it at first, and then it got boring. So I moved into business analysis. Then I worked on a genuinely exciting cloud project, and it left me wanting something more, some fusion of the geology and the thing I’d actually loved as a kid.
So I went and did a master’s, taught myself as much as I could alongside it, and came out the other side as a cloud engineer. I love it.
And I still want more. I’m back studying Python properly, throwing myself at every coding challenge I can find, and seriously thinking about going all in on AI, because that’s where my passion actually meets the current reality.
Which is why I really, really relate to your post. The one line I’d gently push back on is “those years weren’t wasted”. I think you’re underselling them. A groomer and a veterinary assistant spends every day reading something that can’t tell you what’s wrong, deciding what matters first, and getting it right without a second attempt. That’s debugging. It’s the part of this work that doesn’t come from documentation, and plenty of people who arrived through a computer science degree turn up without it.
The animals gave you the diagnostic instinct. Code is just where you’re applying it now.
And do tell your dad again. He may not quite believe it, but I suspect he likes hearing it.