I was first introduced to programming in 8th grade. As I was scrolling through Facebook, there was a post about Facebook compiling a list of websites that allows anyone to learn how to program. There I saw a website called Codecademy. I start my journey from there. I learn HTML (not a programming language), CSS, and Javascript (still not fluent). From there, I learned other programming languages because I wanted to make Desktop programs. In the end, I was not able to make Desktop programs. It was simply time-consuming and I was still in school at the time. However, I was able to learn the fundamentals of programming languages.

// python3
print("Hello World!")

Fast forward to my first year of high school, my teacher introduce to the class a new club that competes online to defend a computer. I was fascinated by the way my teacher explain the club description and right then and there, I was sold. I showed up at the interest meeting and joined the club. I was excited to learn new things and open a new perspective in a field that is vast and unknown. Eventually, we were all learning about cryptography, Linux commands, file transfer, binary, hexadecimal, computer inner working (OSI model), CIA of cybersecurity, and more. The club eventually became a class when the students showed interest in learning about cybersecurity. The first competition that I joined was the Cyberpatriot, a nationwide, US-based, competition that prepares computers to be used by a company in a VM, of course. They give a scenario which is based on TV shows or movies and our job was to protect the computer from any potential threat.

I was thrilled to be part of the class, the group, and the competitions. I had a feeling of wanting to learn more about the field and be one in the near future. When I applied for colleges, I specifically looked for cybersecurity as a major. I choose cybersecurity because I know that I will love to explore and receive awards from the enjoyment of learning and applying what I learned. It’s the feeling of when I first complete a challenge to move into the next one. The feeling of not giving up even though I have no idea of what to do and overcoming the challenge. In short, I feel accomplished when I partake in cybersecurity. That is why I chose cybersecurity over computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, web design/development, game design/development. I have a feeling that I will accomplish more in the future.