Ruby
Not many people can say that they became interested in computers and technology because of their grandmother, but I can say that. Since at least 1980 my grandmother always had a computer in the house. The best part was that it was not off limits to little kids. She never hesitated to get it up and running for her grandchildren so they could play Space Invaders or pretend like they knew how to program. She had paint programs, flight simulators and BASIC programming books ready to go.
Ruby was a California girl who knew the LA freeways like the back of her hand. She spent her entire professional life doing accounting for Rockwell International along with her brothers who were engineers there. Rockwell, which is now Boeing was one of the main contractors for the Apollo program and in later years, the Space Shuttle. I remember going to open house events at her workplace and seeing partially built Space Shuttles and countless other amazing things. These experiences along with her stories inspired me to have a lifelong fascination for all things aerospace and tech related. Because of my grandmother, I grew up thinking about computers, programming and flying machines. She was always talking about space and technology and even sent my brother and I to space camp.
Many times we have people who come into our lives who are the right people at the right time to help us get through a difficult situation. For me, that time was high school and those people were my grandparents. Yes, I was the type of kid who would hang out with old people. When I was in high school my grandparents sold their home in Downey and built a new house right next to mine. We were already close but having them live next door brought us even closer and having them around made a huge positive difference in my life at a very difficult time.
During high school, and largely due to the influence of Mrs. James who was another great mentor in my life, I began to learn a variety of design software packages. My grandmother always talked about CAD/CAM and how I should learn how to use it. From the first time I got my hands on a 3d design program I was hooked and did nothing else for the remainder of high school and through most of college. I began with programs designed for visual effects but eventually moved to CAD.
My grandmother often told me that I should become an aerospace engineer, and I agreed. Somehow that never happened but I grew up thinking about it and building things. Her brothers, who were aero engineers always had cool things to talk about and were happy to answer my questions. I did try building a few things with limited results. Years later when 3d printing became mainstream I would finally be able to put my CAD skills to work and really start building. I began designing and building different airframe prototypes and became very good at it. I got to the point where hardware was never an issue, but software was always an issue. I had to rely on off the shelf products and programs and just make them work somehow but I knew that eventually I would need to learn some programming skills.
I grew up hearing about programming all the time. Both of my grandparents talked about it related to their work. Sometimes it was my grandfather’s old Navy stories about punch cards, where information was stored on paper cards with holes punched into them. Other times it was about BASIC or something to do with my grandmothers work. Either way, it looked like a lot of work and I was lazy so I always found a good reason not to learn anything about programming. As time went on it became more and more obvious that eventually I would have to learn how to program.
At one point, I was fooling around with PHP to modify some website functionality. Then I began searching around online to try to actually learn something. I wanted to program flight controllers so I started taking some free online C+ courses, none of which I would finish. During the first Covid shutdowns in California I happened to have a week off that I couldn't do anything with, so I finally sat down and completed an online C+ course. It felt great to know that it was something I could grasp and certainly gave me the confidence to go into the software engineering program at Flatiron School.
In May of 2021 I left California and moved to Texas in my car because I needed to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself. After two days here I decided to check off my final learning goal and I applied to Flatiron. It has been an incredible experience, and a great adventure full of impressive people. We are now working on our final projects and getting ready to finish the program. Like anything worthwhile, it has been extremely challenging at times but always worth it. I now look forward to finishing up and flying back to California for some good times and a well deserved extended break.
I should have listened to Ruby. I should have gone to college, studied to become an engineer and learned how to program early in life. Instead I did everything the hard way and took the long route. Maybe I am as stubborn as she was. In any case, I am very happy. My grandmother provided me with a lifetime of inspiration and encouragement. I hope that I can do the same thing for my children.
