From LinkedIn

“I was born in Brooklyn, New York to Haitian parents. And I was raised in Philadelphia. I had always felt like something was off with me from a young age. In the first grade, I was placed in the special needs class. The elementary school staff moved me to mainstream in the second grade onward, but there was still a lingering feeling in me that I didn’t belong. In the fourth grade, I was expelled and sent to another school due to my behavior. And I developed a belief that I would be in prison or murdered by the age of 25. Like so many others where I’m from. I turned to religion in high school as an escape. Due to my adherence to my spiritual values, I performed well and graduated 2nd in my class. Unfortunately, doubts began to linger. I had believed that I would go to Wheaton College in Illinois and study Theology to pursue being a missionary, pastor, and/or preacher. But my backsliding doubts prevented me from writing the college admissions essay with a clear conscience. So I went to Penn State, instead.

I was undecided my first year. Lost. I thought I would become a rapper, funny enough. Eventually, I took a propaganda course. It shifted my worldview incredibly so. It caused me to doubt my faith and much more. I began to see everything as propaganda. So I majored in Advertising. Hoping that being the one propagating the messages, I would become immune to its effects. I had been mistaken, though, and interning, and later working in the industry, revealed to me that professional life was not as simple as I thought. I then discovered computer science, and I fell in love with learning everything I could about it. 5 years of self study, including a year of computer science at Temple University, and 9+ months at what was then Lambda School, eventually culminated with a job in the industry.

This is incredibly scary for me to share. This was not written with the help of ChatGPT. This is my first draft. But I need help. I have been working as a behavioral therapist to help kids with special needs because I was one and, in many ways, still feel like one today. I would like to get back into software engineering or a computer science adjacent field. Are there apprenticeship programs that anyone could refer me to? I have 1.5~ years of professional software engineering experience at Rivian. I’m only an okay programmer, but I think I work well with people and can learn fast. I want to become a backend engineer.

I feel this post is self-indulgent to share. But I’ve never been open about these things. Only with people in person. So please bare with me.”

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7139316820565524480/