I was in college when the internet really started to take off. Countless friends and classmates encouraged me to learn HTML and start building websites to makes some extra cash. I had no problem telling all of them time and again that I had no interest what-so-ever in learning HTML, etc. I was too busy writing bad poetry and wondering why I seemed to gravitate to gay men rather than straight men to take too much of an interest in the Internet. Not even the eye candy that is Keanu Reeves in The Matrix could sway me.
Man, do I ever laugh and point at my younger self.
What was once simply a tool to help me research term papers and articles has become integral to my life. My first job out of college was at a start-up web shop and guess what? Despite my best efforts I learned HTML there. I learned javascript at my second start-up and ASP at my first corporate job out of college. By the time I was twenty-five I barely recognized the girl who read Santana liner notes while the guys in the room watched The Matrix.
Quite the turnabout for a former Journalism major who was content to only know how to install and use her word processing program. Today I can’t imagine not working on the internet.
Over the last ten or so years my career has taken me from start-ups to major corporations and back and I have loved every minute of it. The internet is robust, dynamic and challenging. That’s why I love it and continue to learn about it and from it every day.
I am a proud member of the Ladies Who Launch and was honored to present a webinar to my fellow ladies about e-commerce planning for the holiday season. You can see it here.
