BACK IN THE TECH SADDLE

It’s 2012. I had been a stay-athome, home-schooling mum for 15 years already. The kids have grown up. Time for me to figure out what I would do with the rest of my life.

In a time B.C. (before children) I’d been a C developer but in the tech world 15 years away is an eternity. The web revolution happened while I was home, both the original web and Web 2.0. I hadn’t coded anything in an eternity. Then I heard of this little board coming out of the UK meant for kids who were interested in computers. I ordered two (for my teenagers, obviously).

The Raspberry Pis arrived in Canada between Christmas and New Year. I’m sorry to say they were a bust. I was unable to get anything going! I had completely forgotten Unix, along with most computer notions I ever had. I was devastated. I joined the ranks of a growing online community where experimenting and learning is encouraged for all. Trying to be a good example to my kids, I learned Python. Nested loops gave me nightmares but surprisingly, recursivity was a breeze. Obviously, some concepts just needed a little push to come back to the surface.

Armed with that bit of Python, I managed to blink my first LED at age 47 and I was hooked.

Eventually, I got hired to write curriculum, based on my years of home-schooling and running workshops, and moved up the ladder. Against all odds, I had managed a come-back into the tech industry! I can say without any doubt that the Raspberry Pi is the catalyst that let me succeed. It’s not just for kids.