Ice Breaker

Age is a mystifying concept. It can feel big and boring or it can feel young and youthful. As I ease towards my forty years of age, I am rejoicing some learnings that I am proud to have finally realised.

I am glad to have worn several titles that made me steer what I want to invest myself in. I entered academics with a keen fondness for math and numbers. I looked at vehicle number plates and tried to make associations with the number combinations - even and odd. I acquired a fascination with remembering birth dates and, though very non-vocal in the class environment, I liked to greet peers and gain their respect by wishing them Happy Birthday! 

I remember at one time, even numbers were a comforting companion. I used to hop to an even number on the volume scale for the TV remote. Then arrived humanity and I developed a liking for odd numbers instead. Number 13 was a tough one. My Nano, though very religious, was ironically very superstitious. She associated adversity with Number 13 and poor Tuesday. And if the 13th of a month would happen to fall on a Tuesday, she would get very edgy. As menacing as the initial encounters were taught to be, number 13 soon became a fond favorite.

I ended up doing Mathematics in my Bachelors - a thing you never really want to do. Glorious as it may seem, by itself Math does not stand a chance unless you teach the subject or undertake a pHD expedition. It was one of the road blocker decisions that led to several deadlocks along life.

After more than a decade, I am glad I succeeded in rectifying that mistake of marketing myself as a Math graduate. It wasn’t easy delving into programming languages and software development. It was even more challenging to acknowledge myself as a developer without a core coherent qualification in the realm. But it was more about self trust issues rather than skill or expertise. With continuous learning being the key to my existence, my struggle of years and commitment to perform and deliver won me trust and respect from the community. Now I exist as a Full Stack Software Developer and get fascinated with the products that I have been a part of bringing into existence.

Thank you to the Forty years of my life.