The 90s, My Journey
When I first started out in tech, I pursued Computer Science. I programmed in Basic in high school, in college I did COBOL, Pascal, C++ and later dabbled in HTML and CSS after a web design class I had. I ended up with a degree in networking. It's my journey through the 90s ending in 2002.
When I graduated out of high school and went to the University of Arkansas in 1990, this is where I fell into the world of Unix, specifically dealing with the SunOS server and workstations.I went into the labs just to get on every day, no real mission but to explore. Things didn't work out for me at U of A so i came home after the first year.
After that, I became more interested in being an engineer, even though I continued to program. I came back home, started attending Harold Washington College in 1991 to get some general credits out of the way, while I decided where I would go to finish up. I also got a job with Andy Frain at O'Hare and doing computer work on the side.
I attempted to go back to the U of A in 1993, but things had changed so much I didn't really like it there. I had great experiences, the people I met the things I did, but it wasn't for me. So I came back home again and started back with Andy Frain and did my computer work side hustle.
Things really turned towards engineering when I was at Devry in 1996. I overheard someone giving a tour showing the facilities. Possibly this person was from a business and the Devry employee was showing him how great everything was and how they can get great students here. Then I heard the fatal words as I'm coming out of the computer lab, taking a break from programming. As the guy was talking about the lab I came out of, I heard the person that was being toured say, "Programmers?? They are a dime a dozen." That's when I started doing more hardware and repair. I left Devry, but it wasn't totally about that (have to do another post for that).
I continued to do computer work on the side as I was working at O'hare. One day, one of the computers on the curbside went down. I didn't want to be in the kiosk with 3 Skycaps sharing one computer so I started to fix it. A familiar 1K passenger walked up to me and was like why you over there fixing that computer. I replied, "This is what I do." He raised his eyebrows and said, "you work on computers?" I told him yeah. He looked at me for a second while I was working to fix the connection. He suggested that I shouldn't be slinging bags I should have a job fixing computers.
After that, I decided to go back to school to finish. One problem, I couldn't continue being a Skycap and go to school. The lead said to me when i told him. You have to make a choice, I either have to go to school or work here, but you can't do both. So I quit and went to Robert Morris College (Later Robert Morris University, IL). Started there in September 1999. Got my degree in networking with a focus on the Cisco Academy curriculum in 2002, and I think it was the right choice for me.
