Originally published on Medium.
Cabin on a snowy lake. Reminds me of home. Source: Freepik.
A Bit of a Journey
Over the past four months I’ve experienced the strangest combinations of freedom and pressure I’ve ever felt.
In early spring, just after my birthday, I was fired. Happy birthday to me.
Really, though, it was an appalling first for me. The shock lasted about five days—either an instant or an eternity, depending on your perspective.
After that short bout, I realized nobody was coming to rescue me (surprise, surprise) and decided to treat the empty calendar as the rarest resource an adult can have: time. Freedom? Yes. The mental pressure of a singularity? Check.
I’m a full-time Cybersecurity student with a minor in AI. Up until this point, I’d never had the chance to chase something I was so passionate about.
Every time I thought that I found something that I could do for a while, I grew a little bored with it. Not to the extent of jumping ship, mind you, but rather that work always wound up becoming mundane. I might not have mastered every aspect of the position, but I’d grown to understand what I was doing to the degree that it wasn’t challenging anymore. Nothing was hard enough.
Now, you might be thinking, “Wow, Andrew, that’s very humble of you!”
Yes, I understand how that might sound a bit arrogant or egotistical.
But I will never mean it that way.
I’ve been subjected to variations of, “MaYbe iF yOu sTucK aRoUnd FoR lonGeR tHan a YEar yOuD fInD oUT tHat yOu dIdn’T knOw eVeRytHinG!”
Between the financial collapses of two of my past employers, needing to leave for greener pastures at another, and the most recent rug-pull, I haven’t had much choice in the matter. I’d like to build a solid career spanning a tiny entourage of companies just like anyone else.
That said, I will never claim to have complete understanding of any given field or subject. Thankfully, there’s just too much to learn. When I say nothing was challenging enough, I do not refer to achieving mastery. No, it was not that I absorbed all there was to learn, it was the sedentary pace of learning. Not just slow; it was damn torpid! Lacking a fire hose to drink from, I got bored.
So, what did I do about it?
I took to heart some of the best advice I’d ever gotten.
If things look like shit, you’re probably standin’ too close. If ya back up, and they still look like shit, go ‘head and walk ‘round it ‘till you’ve got a better angle.
Turns out, I really needed a better angle. Oddly enough, the very best angle didn’t come about from anything I did. It came from some new friends.
A few weeks into figuring my Tilt-A-Whirl life out, one of my Professors, Kemal Aydin (big shout out to him), asked all members of the class I was in if they had any interest in joining a student club.
Imagine my surprise, finding out we even had student clubs!
So, I said, “Sure! I’ll join the Cybersecurity Club.”
When I look back on life decades from now, that will be one of those moments where I think, “What could have possibly gone wrong?”
And, rather than Murphy’s Law taking over, I ran face-first into some of the best moments of my life.
Inside my first hour with the club, I met Adonnis Alexander, Jacob Oglesbee,and Corey Farley. People like me, passionate about Cybersecurity and hungry for knowledge. If any of you are reading this, thank you. It’s hard to explain what your support has meant to me.
I was invited to join them in representing Franklin University at the Spring National Cyber League competition, a renowned and demanding series of challenges for collegiate cybersecurity students nationwide.
I’d never competed before, but the idea of pitting my fledgling skills against live challenges was not only too good to pass up, it sounded invigorating.
Then, in a first-timer run of absurdity, with all technical grace of a greased pig in a bounce house, I finished in the top three percent of all NCL Solo competitors.
A week later, my very own Franklin Red Team ranked seventieth out of nearly five thousand. The scoreboard didn’t fix my bank account, but it did something quieter and more valuable: it confirmed I was on the right path.
A new semester started up, and I decided I wanted more. More knowledge. More challenges. More responsibilities. I wanted to find a limit.
I began regular cardio by juggling soccer balls and striking at a rebound net.
I began cooking even more often to support my girlfriend with her full-time job, keeping our food healthy and fresh.
I kept our garden going. I talked to my family more. I was promoted to Senior Officer in the Cybersecurity club, and we officially joined the ACM with the election of Jacob Oglesbee as Chairman, and Adonnis as the Vice Chair.
Meanwhile, the Franklin Python Club needed a President. The group had fallen into complete silence, with no active membership. I raised my hand, mostly to pursue my own goals of gathering an AI group, and instantly discovered how teaching sharpens your own understanding.
I started hosting weekly meetings going over everyone’s Python projects. Public speaking used to terrify me; now it feels like an extension of the debugging process — only the code is in people’s heads.
Then, one day…
I WOKE UP AND I COULDN’T FEEL MY RIGHT ARM.
Ah, cervical radiculopathy… to be done in by a mere pinched nerve. As of right now, it’s been seven weeks with little to no exercise, because even stomping my damn feet still hurts.
Thankfully, it’s over and done with (for the most part), and I can get back to regular exercise. Without the slightest tap of my arm evoking pained groans reminiscent of a dying, geriatric walrus. Fabulous!
Now, not everything has been technical. I put gaming on hold quite a while ago (Kerbal Space Program, my beloved, I shall return), choosing instead to spend those reclaimed hours writing the novel that’s lived rent‑free in my brain since high school. Two thousand words and counting. Some pages need love; others are downright good. All of them exist because I finally made time for it.
Finally, I have to write about the most recent changes for me:
Thanks to the incredible kindness and generosity of my family, especially my father, I am now able to push toward the finish line of my degree.
I also owe so much to my girlfriend, Priya, who has been my rock throughout our entire relationship and especially during this challenging time. Her unwavering faith and love give me the strength to keep going.
While working full time, I had originally estimated graduating in the fall of 2027.
However, after a lot of calculation and intense planning, I’ve managed to shorten this timeline to the fall of 2026 at the latest, with the best-case scenario being the summer of next year— just a year away.
To do so, I’ll need to conquer 7 different certifications, earning credits that allow me to prove my proficiencies and skip entire classes. I’ll need to study full-time, and wring every drop of ingenuity out of my brain. But I’ve never been so ready for it.
I won’t pretend every day has been heroic. There are moments when the job market feels like a glacier and I question whether I’m sprinting in place. But each time that doubt shows up, I stack the evidence. If you’re out there doubting your own momentum, stack up your evidence too. You’re liable to be pleasantly surprised:
In the last five years, I’ve read over 400 books. Whew.
Last semester I got a 4.0 GPA and I’m on track to repeat it.
I’m eating healthier than ever, cooking 90% of it myself, and exercising like never before.
I placed in the top 3% of the Solo NCL; my squad placed 70th in the nation in the team game.
I’m the President of a club I resurrected. The Senior Officer of another.
I presented a 2-hour session on the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, with another one coming up.
I’m dividing that AI content into a micro-series to share across the entire Franklin ACM chapter and beyond.
I’m writing blog posts, articles, code, and an entire freaking book.
I just got my Security+ certificate.
And the best part?
The people I love are proud of me.
Mom, Dad, Jess, Priya; you deserve more recognition than I could ever give you. So, I’ll start by giving you some here.
I’ll need money eventually, but for now, I’ve stopped telling myself I need a payroll number to validate my work.