In this video I pick up right after I dropped out of college and signed a six-year enlistment in the Air Force. Three years in, I deployed to the Middle East and it was brutal—12-hour shifts, 7 days a week, 115° heat—and I felt stuck like I made the wrong decision. I funneled all that frustration into figuring out a real career change. I remembered I liked my C++ class (even though I barely paid attention) and I had a brother in tech, so I started Googling “day in the life of a software engineer” and, eventually, “how to become a software engineer without a degree.” That’s when I found Chris Sean and basically reverse-engineered his plan: learn, practice, and get your foot in the door ASAP. I tried learning from a book (Head First Python) and realized I just don’t like books or classroom learning. Once I found an online course style that clicked—Colt Steele—I studied HTML, CSS, and JavaScript every day for four months, even practicing in a browser console at work. When I got back to Florida, I applied for an internal front-end role and got it, then leveled up fast once a senior engineer (Greg) mentored me. Later, I landed an apprenticeship in Santa Monica where I learned how to be a real software engineer—tests, version control, standups—by pair programming with Austin. I came back, built a free bootcamp, and realized I love teaching devs, which is why I pivoted into developer advocacy.