A Surfer’s Dream To Code

Growing up, my life was always planned out for me. I was told what to do and where to go. According to my parents, I was supposed to be a doctor like my father. I was supposed to attend Harvard Med, study until the young age of 30, and move back home to start my career. It seemed like a great plan to everyone. I wasn’t crazy about it, but I didn’t argue, it was just my life plan. The only thing I had of my own was surfing. I grew up in Manhattan Beach, California since I was 13 years old so I was fortunate enough to live 10 minutes up the street from the beach. Surfing is all I truly loved doing. At that point, I had pretty much accepted I’d have a career I’d never love for the rest of my life.

This was until I started paying more attention to other careers within our family. My cousin Jason is currently a Software Engineering Intern at Google, which grew motivation from our cousin Luis who is a Software Engineer at Kensho Technologies. Luis is now very successful man making a 6-figure salary, living comfortably in gorgeous loft in New York City, and traveling all the time. “That’s what I want!” I thought. So I started researching Software Engineering. I learned everything I could about it. I practiced it and put my work to action. Thats when I knew this is what I was meant to do. With time, i developed a passion for programming. I nearly opted for a 4 year CS Degree but after many Youtube videos, I found out about coding bootcamps. I was determined to become the best software engineer I could, so I wanted the best school.

After MUCH research, I narrowed it down to Flatiron School. And I am so glad I made this choice. After so many personal experiences shared by former Flatiron students I reached out to online, I was convinced that Flatiron would give me what I needed to prepare for an extrodinary software engineering career.