Almost Done College

It has been a long time coming. I passed finally.

When I was in grade 7, I wanted to learn programming. I was around 12 at the time. Now I am 39 years old.

I was lucky to live in a good environment where teachers at my elementary school taught me all sort of computers.

I came to the conclusion that software development was the only way to make good money because it was different from the other professions. You had to develop things instead of relying on memorization and repetitive tasks. Also software development could be fun by being creative without costing you much more than a basic desktop computer.

I knew this and it was in the back of my mind since I was young and never really stopped wanting to do it.

I met a lot of trouble in the way trying to learn enough to do software development. This was mostly because of the lack of real world experience and lack of help.

The only way I overcame all the trouble I faced was concentrate on good experiences out in the world.

1. John Fleming of RealHardwareReviews.com. He got me back in the tech space by allowing me to do graphic design and tech journalism for his website and YouTube channel. I miss him. He was the most positive person I met always pushing people to do their best and reach their full potential.
2. Al Michael Lane of AMLCSL a local computer repair store in my hometown. Al pushed me to do higher education. He told me to use my brain instead.
3. All the teachers at Durham College, my hometown college. All the teachers showed intelligence and support. They taught me to continually think and push looking for my answers. One teacher taught me that the complexity I think computer programming is (like AI) is just bunches of ‘IF’ statements. So now I try to think simply and in small chunks which helped tremendously. Just “IF” and “ELSE”. One teacher taught me that “computer programming” is an ongoing learning daily activity. You learn everyday becoming a better and better programmer. Without these two lessons I would be stuck thinking I had to be complex and complete which stresses me out. Think simple and small chunks and take life day-by-day I learned. This was my biggest problem in my life. I thought I had to complicated, interesting and complex to have self-esteem and impress people. I just sit in my room talking to my few good friends online most of the time who are on the same wavelength as me. That is all you need I think in life: a few good friends who think on the similar level which are these people below.
4. Ben Cybulski who I met at AMLCSL and now we run FreeTimeTech.com and other things (BenchTweakGaming.com and FirstGenProgrammer.com). He pushed me to do more with my life to think inward. I gained health and maturity by listening to him. He pushed me to create Windows Debloaters (His idea) and now I like programming.
5. Dmitry Nefedov (farag2/Sanctuary) of Sophia Projects (Microsoft Windows Tweakers). He reached out to me to work together building his Windows Tweakers. He helped me learn how to problem solve on my own with our unique software ‘Sophia Script Wrapper‘. I am willing to work with him because he is a really positive guy and nice person willing to provide great solutions to tweak (customize) Windows which is something I like to do all day.
6. Tan Vu (John) who I studied Computer Programming with at Durham College. His ability of trying to keep researching and problem solving was incredible. He never gave up trying to solve a problem. I tried to emulate his tenacity to always keep trying and trying until I never gave up too. I was about to give up computer programming until Tan (John) helped me during 2nd/3rd semester at school.
7. Tammy Nguyen who comes from University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) who helped me think positive about myself and think positively about other people. She also taught me about my homeland culture (Vietnam) and how she thought living in Canada. She fixed my misunderstandings about how to live my life. Before I was always negative one way and now I think in many ways differently positively.
8. And my mom and family and cousins of course. 200% unconditional love and support is needed too.
9. God/Buddha. Doing good things gave me back things unexpectedly 10x fold. Believe in the universe and karma. Give and don’t expect anything in return. For example, I developed ‘Sophia Script Wrapper‘ with Dmitry Nefedovs’ (farag2/Sanctuary) design and help. It is free and downloaded a lot.

There is a lot of negativity in this world that can drag you down and divert your attention to a meaningless and possibly self-destructive life.

Every person must have a purpose in life surrounded by like minded people. That is all you need. These friends should support you to think of mature things like study, work, and concentrate on increasing your skills and broaden your mind. They should push you to avoid superficial and artificial endeavors.

Living your life you can be put in the rat race of doing what society expects of you. If you go with the flow you can land up miserable and unhealthy possibly sick.

If you are lucky to live in a country like Canada, there are government loans/grants you can take to do schooling to try a different career that is more suitable to you. I was able to chase my dream and accomplished things I wanted and now I have some excess. I have a good feeling these days accomplishing things which cement me and keep me healthy.

I hope everyone can make positive genuine friends which they vibe with and to live with purpose for health, growth and maturity. I think that is all there is to life. I refocused to follow my passion. I focused on myself for my needed health and growth.

Also I keep this on my front bumper on my brain: On all my social media accounts I have a tagline that says ‘Avoid polarizing negative people‘. That is all I do all day. I avoid people who think negative and put you in a box. You don’t have to hear someone’s negative spin on life or have anyone criticize you especially when you are an adult. I am 39 years old now. I think I heard and seen enough negativity in my life. Life is too short to hear any negativity or be put in any negative situation. Once you been in enough negative experiences then you can just avoid things that don’t vibe with you and you can just play with your positive friends all day. Find your positive friends by working out in the real world in your field and put yourself online not worrying about what would happen if you do put yourself out there. Take the chance to put yourself out there. You have to if you are looking for friends to collaborate and support you. I needed my friends for maturity and support. I have to at my old age. I can not walk around like a young adult no more. I am past the half way mark in my life.

I have this problem with me. I meet people who criticize me and what they do to me and what they are about sticks to me drawing all my energy and time away and make me think negative as them. I have a hard time avoiding this. So the best course of action for me is to be by myself and just talk to my positive friends. I can instantly feel this downward spiraling ripping pain and exhaustion trying to work and befriend these type of people. I am not sure what to do so I just walk away trying to avoid thinking or talking to them. I am not sure what to do or say. Maybe they will change and mature to be more positive and change their negative ways … Maybe they need to talk to me to help them think differently. Well I have FreeTimeTech.com and FirstGenProgrammer.com writing things I see and encounter day-to-day that may help.

UPDATE (April 7, 2023): I realized now that people who criticize you usually just need to see things your way. I have been through a lot and believe I am pretty mature for myself. My dad says I am still too young to see things his way and he is in his 70s now and he just waits around letting me do my thing until I further mature and mature. That is all. People live in stages of maturity. So now I don’t worry about criticism because it stems from lack of experience and understanding on their part. For me, old age is when I turned 30 years old. 30 changed me to focus on myself and turn inward to learn and grow with like minded individuals.

But at the end of the day if you are experienced enough and have the means, you just do your passions. So it is not about growing up really. I am finally following my passions of creating computer system tools/utilities like I wanted when I was in grade 6. That is the purpose of my life at this point really. Other stuff is just extra.

I feel connected and myself when I just do my passions. Doing my passions makes time stop and I feel I am kind of floating. What other feeling is there in life you need really?