After I graduated with a computer science degree, I spent a year playing competitive chess. I had already dedicated a lot of my free time in the last two years

After I graduated with a computer science degree, I spent a year playing competitive chess. I had already dedicated a lot of my free time in the last two years of my degree to chess and I couldn't wait to be done with school so that I could go all-in on chess. I learned a lot of valuable life lessons during that year and I am glad I took that time before diving right into my career in tech. At the time, I was nervous that I was ruining my life by not getting started right away at a "real job", but things turned out completely fine -- in fact, I think my manager at my first big tech job was more intrigued by my chess skills than my coding skills :)