MY TECH JOURNEY
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” — L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between
This brilliant quote from Hartley’s novel is a blindsidingly original statement that one will feel compelled to read about just how the writer acquired this wisdom.
Now I've gotten your attention, may I introduce myself properly whilst stating the fact that this story is going to be the most original story you are ever going to read. Well, that statement isn't true because obviously my next story is going to be way more original than this one. Okay, enough jokes I promise. Seriously.
My name is Inyeneabasi Donald and I'm currently an intern at Genesys tech hub and I want to tell you the story of my tech journey.
This story is not going to be told chronologically ie from when I was small till the present, rather it will be told in a categorical order which you would get to understand better as we go on.
So we begin.
"....so I planned to attend Learnable 2020 and I applied for it and got accepted and here we are!"
*pauses
Well you are probably wondering how I got here, let's take you back a bit.
*rewinds and plays that noise that usually plays during rewinds
My Uncle
A weird way to start right? Nope, it isn’t. My uncle was basically my idol in technology. He literally was the person I always looked up to in terms of technology and Innovation when I was younger because I was always marvelled at his knowledge on things that have to do with technology. During my toddler days, he was the one that always comes to my house to solve the issues we have with my parents' phones, laptops and the rest. I remember anytime he comes around, I will get excited and I’m always interested in the things that he does like when he’s fixing stuff I’m always by his side to see what he does and I always get happy and eager to learn from him. I actually give him a lot of credit for the current knowledge I have now about tech because he basically was my foundation and my stepping stone as he really helped me to know things especially considering the fact that I was very young at the time.
My Gadget history
So I basically got my first gadget when I was in my final year of secondary school. Seems a bit late but my dad had a policy of not giving us a gadget until we were of age which is totally understandable. But luckily when I was younger, I had exposure to these gadgets because I usually played with my parents phones. I usually carry my dad’s phone after asking for permission (I promise, I did) and he allowed me to play games on it and I also used my mum’s laptop to play vintage games like Purble Place, Pinball, Solitaire and the likes so basically I was actually quite competent when I eventually got my first phone because of the previous experience I had with my parents devices. When I eventually entered University I got a laptop and a tab so right now I’m pretty okay with my gadgets.
The impact of school
'C is for computer'
That was the only thing I did in primary school that was related to technology. When I entered secondary school, I got exposed to tech from the angle of formal education and you know obviously in secondary school we learn everything in the world so the periods for computer science was few and between. And in those few periods, there was fewer periods that we actually had the chance to get into the computer lab. Going to the lab was a very exciting part of school because while the teacher is teaching, we were playing various games and setting high scores and whoever had the highest score for the week will have the bragging rights till the next period we come to the lab(I had a lot of bragging rights). My unversity made it easier in my tech advancement because there was Wi-Fi access and like you know so I was finally specialising in computer science so I didn’t have to wait for a certain time to practice what I really wanted to do.
Various work studies and internships
So the first place that I ever went to as an intern was a was an ICT Hub close to my house. This was when I was in secondary school, we were given a holiday assignment on work experience to learn how the working environment is.
Since I was obviously interested in computer size I was enrolled in a in an ICT hub and it was actually a good experience because I started learning back-end development at that place and it was good for me because I was exposed to this at a very young age, then the next place I went to for internship was my mother’s office this was my second year in university and it was during the summer break which is usually very long so I really had nothing to do at that point and my mum invited me to come and work in the office at there in the ICT department. I worked with my supervisor who is like a brother and mentor to me. He taught me more on backend development and really made me to understand the ICT world as it stands currently and where the ICT world is heading to.
Genesys Tech Hub
The year is 2019(good times) and I was currently in my third year in university and at that point we usually do a 3 month internship as part of the requirements for getting a bachelors degree but this year was different as we were told ours was gonna be 6 months. I started searching for a suitable place for my internship and then my dad told me about a tech hub in Enugu that is good. At first, I was daunted by the prospect of leaving my state to another state for internship(I stay at Akwa Ibom), but eventually I persuaded myself to take up the offer(good choice past me, good choice!) and I came here for my internship. During my internship here, I developed my knowledge about front and back-end development due to the help of many mentors that guided me. Now due to the strict calendar of my university, I couldn’t attend Learnable 2019 as it didn’t fit with my schedule (I had to go back to school before the internship ended) so I planned to attend Learnable 2020 and I applied for it and got accepted and here we are!
*pauses
Now we've caught up, I just want to say that I'm really looking towards Learnable 2020 and I can't wait to see what we have for each other!!
“Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.” — Ha Jin, Waiting
I just had to end this article with a quote I know nothing about just to balance the books.
Adios!
