I became a programmer in spite of high school. I had started programming a bit around seventh grade, due in part to the years of joy my Commodore 64 had afford

I became a programmer in spite of high school. I had started programming a bit around seventh grade, due in part to the years of joy my Commodore 64 had afforded me. I was looking forward to taking the lone computer science course at my high school, but learned that it was only offered to International Baccalaureate (IB) students and not the regular advanced placement (AP) students. BTW, The IB program is a sham as those students shared most of my classes yet received more recognition. Compounding my anger, my friends that took the programming class did not want to enroll in it. I developed a love of coding by experiencing the results of coding (e.g. games, early web browsers, email, etc) and discovering the computer could solve a problem an infinite number of times as long as I solved it merely once. I developed a knowledge of coding by taking courses in college and reading books on my own time.