I have learned that life is simply a series of accidents. I know there are those out there that have a grand plan for their lives. Everyone I have ever met, excluding two, never imagined they would be where they are today, and I am no different.

In truth all I ever really wanted to be in life was a drummer nothing else ever really interested me. To create and be creative is what has always drove me forward. Music is a hard life and for most is failure just waiting to happen. For every band that makes it there probably close to a hundred that didn’t.

As I watch music slip thru my fingers, I looked for avenues to fill that creative hole. Oddly enough IT and graphic design came close and became my accident. Spending hours reading and teaching myself everything I could learn became an addiction. In a matter of months, I went from reparing PCs to trouble shooting, configuring, and repairing Cisco routers, domain controllers, Linux servers and multi campus networks.

Then came world wide web that took the world by storm (Thanks AOL, Myspace, and Napster). Of course, I had a new goal in life to learn as much as I could about this brave new world. I was able to truly become creative turning my ideas in to fully fleshed out extensions of me. I look back on those days with great fondness and even a bit of romanticism.

As I was able to become more and more creative the natural progression was to fall into Adobe and Macromedia world. I went broke … I mean purchased my first copies of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign and Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver. I spent the next couple of years teaching myself as much as I could.  Although going to school would have fast tracked everything financially it was just not an option. However, I learned something school wouldn’t teach, how to apply all these new medias and technologies to real world applications. I know this to be true because I have met several young professionals that had all the knowledge you could need but struggled in applying it.

To this day I am still amazed all that I have witnessed in my career to this point. So many major milestones that tech has brought. End of the world that was Y2k and all of Microsoft’s successes and failures with Windows Millennium, XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10. Apple almost being bought by Sun Microsystems now becoming the largest tech company on the planet. I was blown away when Apple removed all their ports in favor of USB in the original iMac, so controversial. I remember when Amazon was a book company and now, they are the first place people go for shopping. I could go on all day and the list would seem never ending.

Even with all these experiences I have accumulated I still get excited to learn more with Azure, AWS, Blender, Sales Force, cyber security, Magneto and so much more. The accident that happened to me defined and changed my life. Because of it I have been with the love of my life for the majority of my life and have two beautiful, smart, and amazing daughters. I am truly a blessed man that the Lord’s grace has covered.