I used to be very insecure about my programming skills

I had taken many, many CS courses even as a junior in high school, and yet I’d be like “no, I’m just a student not a programmer I’m still learning.” But then you know what happened? I took AP CS Principles and advanced web programming classes. I took a programming internship and helped the AI company. I got a website management job for 6 months. I realized programming was my true passion and what I wanted to do in life. I got a temporary backend web development job. I became more confident. I realized I could do it, that my skills were worth something and that I actually had skills.

I went to Cyber Camp and shocked my teammates and camp counselers with my education. My groupmates said: “it’s all you! You know everything!” We won group knowledge contests by landslides, and other campers just gave up when they saw they were against me. “We all know Shay’s gonna win!” And I did. I took home the Engima Award (for the person who best represents the determined spirit of cybersecurity pioneers), and every single one of my teammates said I deserved it. The cyber professionals that visited were impressed by my devotion and interest.

I pull out my computer to make programs to fix my own problems. I read technical articles and realize I know exactly what they’re talking about. Nothing seems like jargon. I go to every single event on campus related to computer science or IT. I look over at my classmates and see them using layman’s terms while I utilize programming and technical terms when writing my algorithms because I know what they mean. I help tutor other students and am confident that I know what I’m talking about.

So I’m still a student, a freshman in college in fact, but I’m proud to call myself a programmer.