Why did I decide to study software engineering?

Ever thought about what brought you here to dev.to and coding? This article is a short recount of my personal journey and motivations.

I started dabbling in code when I as a teenager playing around with their Neopets guild page. I was also exposed to coding through GaiaOnline, where I learnt the bare minimum to make an image map work in PHP.

I was fascinated by how interactivity could be produced from 'magical' text

However, it wasn't until some years ago when I found all the freely available resources for learning to code that my interest was re-ignited. I think freecodecamp.org was the first one that I tried to work through. I particularly loved the community and eventually found the numerous local get-togethers listed on meetup.com.

I found great online and local communities of fellow tech enthusiasts

It was through one of these communities (possibly a slack channel for p1xt's guide) that I learnt of CS50x. Managing to complete that re-awoke the initial feeling of awe I had experienced as a child.

I love the feeling of logic and creativity combined

Throughout this all, I had been working in a variety of jobs - retail, sales, admin, and captioning. I had yet to find a career. This is my final motivation for my earnest pursuit of software development.