As I mentioned in my previous article, I was medically retired from the military in 2019 with a 50% Army disability, and 100% disabled through the Veterans Affairs (combined percentage of all injuries). This shattered my world. I was at 17 years time in service and was trying to utilize the degree I earned just four years prior to get into Officer Candidate School and retire as an officer. I had hoped to achieve at least 20 years. Alas, that was not my path.
I decided to take a year to myself, to unwind, not think about the military for a while, and just learn how to be myself. This was a very trying period of my life. I had the opportunity to just stay retired and live off my current income and be content, or figure out what line of work would work with my disabilities. I really wanted to own a woodworking shop. There is nothing more satisfying than building things with your hands and seeing a finished result. I had prior experience with that sort of thing but, in the end, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the demands to be on my feet. My debilitating injuries were to my feet, back, and neck. Maybe one day I'll go into more details there, but suffice it to say, I can't stay on my feet for more than 15 minutes without being in ridiculous pain.
After a failed plantar fasciotomy, I fired my podiatrist and hired a new one. The new foot Dr. performed two surgeries on my ankles (nerve release surgeries for Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome), which only provided minimal relief. He then suggested I consider a spinal cord stimulator, so in desperation I agreed and after 4 surgeries, I have very very minimal pain reduction (spinal stimulator is a bust). So, deciding that I will just need to learn to deal with the pain, and not being on my feet as much as possible, I decided that I would pursue a career in IT.
I applied to the VA for Vocational Rehabilitation in 2020, half-expecting them to decline me since the GI Bill already paid for my first bachelors degree (basically a career advancement degree from the University of Oklahoma), but after the first interview with my Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC), she gave her blessing and told me to pick a career and enroll in college. I was like, "just like that?" and she said "yep, let me know what you find". So, I started doing some digging and jumped into another program at the University of Oklahoma called Information Science and Technology with the goal of becoming a network administrator.
Sadly, after a full year of that program, I had had enough. It was all theory-based information science with very very limited technology classes and I wasn't having fun with it. I sheepishly called my vocational rehabilitation counselor in August of 2021 and asked if I could switch programs, again, expecting her to say no forcing me to stay with OU. She again, graciously told me that I could switch programs so long as that program could be completed within the given benefit period (and it was). So I then applied to Oklahoma State Universities Institute of Technology in their Bachelor of Technology program and chose the network administration option.
After starting the program in January of this year, I was introduced to the programming world once again. I don't know why I never really thought to allow myself to pursue programming, but for some reason, I just kept running from the idea without even realizing I was running. So excited, I once more contacted my VRC and asked if I could change my program option at the university, and she told me I could as long as it didn't exceed the time remaining for my benefits so, I changed it to the Software Development option. Then in early February of this year I was told about Code Platoon, a coding bootcamp for veterans. I saw their program and became obsessed with learning all I could. They offered a free self-paced program for veterans, and I decided I would give it a go.
Throughout the first few days of the program, I was still trying to get my environment set up, I kept seeing mention of The Odin Project (TOP) in their Slack discussion boards. After the fourth or fifth time seeing this mentioned, I decided I would go check it out. To be fair, I also saw Free Code Camp mentioned a few times, but between the two, I thought TOP looked way more professional than FCC.
The Odin Project
That night February 4th 2022 I was "just checking it out" and that turned into me signing up, joining their discord, and never looking back. I haven't so much as opened Slack since starting TOP. At the expense of sounding like a TOP fanboy, I will say this about the program: The Odin Project is legit. It is all you will need, to learn full stack programming utilizing JavaScript, HTML, and CSS as the learning tools. In today's world, those are valuable languages to learn. The programming concepts learned through TOP's ever evolving curriculum are enough to land you a competitive job in the developer industry. There are so many stories to read in the #odin-success-stories channel on their Discord. A good portion of these are people that have not had prior experience in programming, but after TOP become developers.
That is where I am today. Since I started I can't wait to log on every day and get busy with learning new things. Having had limited prior experience programming, most of the early-on concepts aren't new to me, but I'm beginning to get into the more JavaScript-specific code which means I'm slowing down just a bit which is fine. The good news is, I have two and a half years to complete my Bachelor of Technology degree. That means I have that much time to devote to this outside of study time for classes and I don't take classes in the summer so I will spend my summers pouring over the materials, building projects and learning. After earning two associate's degrees, a bachelor degree, and well on the way to a 2nd bachelor degree, you just sort of develop a love of learning which is very conducive to becoming a developer.
Conclusion
For the first time since I joined the military, I'm excited about my future prospects. Don't misunderstand me, I loved the military, but I hated that it railroaded my career away from what I loved, but that's just life and I made lemonade out of it. At least that's what I told myself when the artillery and rockets were bombarding us. No more of that, now I get to call the shots and do what I want for my family. I want a career where I can work from home and be close to my family, and never leave them again! I don't think it is too much to ask for.
I promise, now that the introductory period is over, I will get into more technical writings about some of the things I'm learning. For now though, I have a Rock Paper Scissors GUI and logic to plan for my next project! Until the next one... be good!
I love the cover photo, and this is what it means to me: I am at a place in my life where I can take control of my future and the direction I am heading!
Photo by Bakr Magrabi: https://www.pexels.com/photo/round-analog-compass-3385615/
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