I’d like to say that my college experience was just like everyone else’s, but I doubt that’s the case. I think I was one of the select few that went to college just to go to college, having no real direction or desire to do anything.

I went with a specific goal in mind, but I did not want to work, so I failed my hard classes and changed my major to something less hard: Officially Undecided. I started out majoring in computer science, but after dropping the first class due to failing every test and assignment, I figured that my brain just wasn’t wired for that kind of thinking. The truth, as I see it now, is that I wasn’t ready to do the work required to be successful in that field.

So I went on a path, wandering around the various colleges at my university. I moved from computer science to undecided. From there I moved to study psychology. I stuck to that one for a year and really liked it. However, I didn’t want to go to grad school. In psychology, there aren’t many job opportunities for those with only bachelor’s degrees.

I made a somewhat lateral move and changed my major to criminal justice. I stuck with this one for a while–maybe two years. Though, I was a horrible student. I got Ds for my first three classes before I realized I wouldn’t graduate with those kinds of grades. I guess I wasn’t paying attention. Maybe I just didn’t care. It was the wrong time to be in school for me,  but I was there, so I kept on taking classes.

After some time, I finally tried programming again and figured out that I could do it. I guess my brain matured enough to think like a programmer, so I was successful. I changed my major, yet again, to computer science and pushed forward. I was still pretty lazy about school work, but at least I put forth enough effort to pass.

After seven and a half years, I graduated with BA in computer science, accompanied by a minor in criminal justice. My GPA was barely good enough to get out of there. As a result, the job offers flew to everyone else. Well, not everyone. At that time, the tech job market had really cooled off. I guess stock market bubble bursting can do that.

Even though I graduated, I was totally unprepared for life after college. Sure, I had been working full time while going to school, but heading into a career changed everything. I was so excited to get a high-paying job doing really cool programming with state-of-the-art systems. Then reality happened and no one hired me for a while…almost a year.

My first experience at a corporate-level programming position ruined everything for me. It was so horrible that I have flashbacks of that cubilce, sleepwalking through the day while repairing aging software systems.

I spent a long time looking for another job, but I found nothing. They were all the same to me: Cold, inhuman, and wrong. I decided that I did not belong in that world, and decided to strike out on my own. More on that later.