I have a strange history with computers. In fifth grade I was selected (still now sure how) to go to a week-long summer school class for programming. We used so

I have a strange history with computers. In fifth grade I was selected (still now sure how) to go to a week-long summer school class for programming. We used some sort of IBM PCs (I have no idea what they were, I just remember booting them up with a 5.5" floppy and having to punch in the correct time as it booted) and typing in the BASIC commands the teacher wrote on the board. In eighth grade, me and a buddy spent way to much time programming a 'choose your own adventure' story in BASIC on an Apple IIe. Something from that fifth grade class must have stuck. For some reason though, I never connected what I was doing with computer science. I guess I thought I was just playing around with a toy or something, so when my college adviser suggested I major in Computer Science, I said no way. At some point during High School I'd gotten my hands on a copy of Photoshop, Version 3 I think. That somehow led me to major in Information Design, which oddly was in the school of journalism. I took classes on print and web design, some flash even, but most of the curriculum was journalism-oriented. After college I worked in newspapers for about six years, creating info graphics and designing pages, but I was always involved in any IT project that came along. I helped setup a content management system, upgrade servers, etc. I also started in newspapers right about the time their downhill slide started. The conversation du jour was always about how newspapers could make it online. Eventually I transitioned to working on Flash projects, learning Actionscript 3 (basically ECMA script) and eventually taking some .net classes at a community college to learn about object-oriented coding and all that. Now I work for the state IT department and have a few side projects going as well. Someday I might actually post one here. I'm more of a designer than a programmer, but I think where I've landed - at least for now - fits my strengths very well. I still wonder what would have happened if I had majored in CS from the beginning, but I would have probably missed out on some fun traveling and great experiences that I had while newspapering.