It all starts at home. A new baby is on the way and working at a warehouse. Let me rewind first and introduce myself!
My name is Trottie McQueen, a Texas-raised native born in Louisiana. A countryman at heart and a city abroad I wasn't interested in information technology until I was 16 years old, trying to understand the internet. I guess it was because we never really had a computer in our home until then. I fell in love with technology when I was 19 at the Art Institute of Dallas (Muti-media & Web Design/Video Production) major. I guess it was the power and control at my fingertips. The ultimate ability to build, control, and destroy whatever you wanted Later, I moved to Houston, Texas, and had trouble landing my first real job. So I ventured into the network galaxy in the IT space and graduated from Everest Institute of Technology. I enjoyed learning the ins and outs of the groundwork, building a computer from scratch (A+ Certification), connecting and troubleshooting wireless networks (Network+, CCNA Certification), and server-end administration using Microsoft.
Not long afterward, I managed to go on and finally discover my first IT job. "Now it's time for the next level", I told myself. It was fun working as a network technician, but I always felt like something was missing. I'm sure you know the feeling. It took me some time to figure it out (18 years!).
I'll tell you this much. LIFE and working odd jobs throughout my IT career have truly HUMBLED me. I couldn't believe the answer was right in front of me the entire time, from when I went to the Art Institute of Dallas!... and it makes sense when I think about it. I wanted to be in more control of the work I was doing. Yeah, sure, Cisco routing commands can be fun all by themselves, but not like being a developer or even in the web design space.
Now here we are! 2021 is hard to believe sometimes. It all starts at home. A new baby is on the way and working at a warehouse... This was the defining moment in my life. I pursued my goal to become a developer. Here we are in 2023! I will admit that the emotions that run through you on your journey are a handful. At first, you may become interested because of a rumor, but afterward, you get a little excited and curious and may ask yourself "What's JavaScript?" or "What does backend mean?". So you start reading more into it and taking the initiative to follow along with a mentor or tutor, and you stumble a lot with many questions. You try on your own and experience frustration, anger, banging your head against the wall, research, then enlightenment, joy, and peace all over again—an endless but rewarding cycle!
And that's how it goes! Welcome to my life as I pursue and take you on my journey to become an official developer with a great company and also a great contributor to the masses! You will hear more from me, so stay tuned for more, and I appreciate your time to get to know me!