College. The beginning of a future dedicated to my major, computer engineering. Why computer engineering? Because Glassdoor said computer engineers made good money. Why else? Did I have a plan? Of course.

1. Work hard during "school hours", have fun outside of them.
2. Graduate college with a strong GPA.
3. Get a job, because who wouldn't want a computer engineer.
4. Make money.

I quickly realized during the first few weeks of college that doing something you don't care for will lead to failure. At least for me. I found myself struggling through my engineering classes, passing by memorizing content and regurgitating information when exams came around, quickly forgetting all that I "learned" afterward. I didn't like the hardware or software components of computer engineering but struggled through it simply because I didn't want to quit. A few weeks later I found myself at a hackathon with my fraternity brother (Sae), and everything changed. For context, a hackathon is a design sprint-like event where people come together, form teams, and make cool stuff. What I saw amazed me. Detailed software apps and hardware products formed before my eyes. Honestly, it felt like a movie scene. Sae and I built a magic mirror during that hackathon. I probably did about .5% of anything for the project, but the effect it had on me was drastic. I wanted to build things from scratch as I saw during the hackathon. I later decided to move from computer engineering to computer science as my interests had geared toward software.

As I started to become more infatuated with programming, I found myself watching videos and reading articles other developers made. These videos and articles inspired the next steps in my journey to become a "real developer". I would always read articles with titles like "How to become a web developer in 2017" and would take down notes on the things they deemed necessary. Articles would vary about some of the necessary skills, but from a high level, they were consistent. I had no prior web development skills and only chose that path because thats what Sae, the person who helped me find the joy in programming, introduced me to. I would look at random things about HTML and CSS, and do it myself, but I felt like everything I made was garbage. I found myself on YouTube a lot watching videos like "How you can land a top engineering job" and "How to go from zero to hero in web development". Some of these videos would be crash courses on how to make a project, while others just explaining different concepts necessary to enter web development. I poured hours into watching videos and reading articles, but never gained skills to match my time. I eventually started taking a web development course on Udemy by Colt Steele, my favorite Udemy instructor, and my journey to become a "real developer" seemed to finally start.

I am starting my blog, Endeavor, for three reasons.

1. To monitor.
   I have done a lot since I started my journey to become a "real developer", a definition that has changed with time. Endeavor will be a place that helps capture important moments during my journey. Important moments being both technical and non-technical, as both are extremely important in this journey. I want to capture new technologies I have used, the reasons for me using sed technologies, how I used sed technologies, and so much more. I want to review my leadership moments, my team experiences, and growth in unexpected territories I would have never imagined being important during my initial start to becoming a "real developer".
2. To teach.
   I love teaching. I was a teaching assistant for an introductory computer science course in Java and Processing for 3 semesters at my university and later course facilitated a class about web development with Node.js and MongoDB. I have gained a lot from blog posts and video tutorials about using a specific technology or tool. I want to give back like those who gave to me and other developers. Hopefully, my content will be able to help someone struggling to tackle a new challenge!
3. To inspire.
   Personally, seeing someone's journey motivates me to be the best possible. I have gained a lot from seeing the circumstance others were in earlier compared to where they are. I plan to keep working hard, improving on what I currently know, as well as learning new skills, and letting the world know about my successes and failures. I hope my experiences can help motivate the next kid dreaming of becoming a "real developer".