When I was four years old, I built my first PC with help from my grandparents. I didn’t have internet access as a child at my house, but my grandparents did. When my parents were working a lot, my grandparents would watch over me. Every second that I could spend on the computer, I was taking advantage of it. I started with just playing games as I was only a kindergartner, but as I grew older I loved to learn all of the neat little tricks that my grandpa knew about PC’s. For example, he showed me how to run Microsoft Windows Vista with the new features such as Aero and Windows DVD maker. It was nothing too intensive, but as a kid I loved getting to learn all that I could about the computer that I built and fell in love with.

Windows Vista was obviously a long time ago and much as changed since then. As I grew older, I started to learn more advanced concepts and participated in technical events. In early high school, I participated in Cyber Patriot, a youth program that was created by the Air & Space Forces Association. There, I was designated as the “Windows Guy” in my group and it became something I did not only for the club, but as a hobby. I enjoyed learning about how everything changes greatly in just a couple months time and that there were many new features to keep up with. I eventually made it to regionals and fell very short of nationals with my team. My tech teacher encouraged me to take all of the “Hornet Tech” classes that were offered at my high school. I began the CompTIA roadmap then.

Throughout my AP courses, governors school program, and regular scheduled classes, I found time to study the CompTIA certification textbooks on my own. I passed the CompTIA Networking+ and CompTIA Security+ in late high school. I also obtained a short internship at a private cyber company that gave me a real feel for what the industry was like. All of these experiences helped me decide that I should continue to pursue Cybersecurity in college.

It is nothing more than the initial love of technology and learning new things that pushed me to be here. I wanted to study Cybersecurity because of the vastness of topics that it stretches across and the continuous growth of new ideas arising. Technology is always progressing, which leaves a spot for many to continue growing with it.