It has been four months since the announcement of my creative retreat. Since then, I've been learning new skills, taking college classes, and carving out a career path that will enable me to fulfill my creative potential. I've also moved into a group house with other creatives, landed a job that starts in September, and also found out that my partner will need to have a hysterectomy soon! A lot has happened since my last blog update— mostly good, but quite a roller coaster.
Creative coding
As I briefly mentioned in my first post, one concept that has fascinated me lately is the idea of creating audio and visual art using code. I had been familiar with audio programming languages like SuperCollider and Max/MSP for a long time, but it wasn't until recently that I also learned about similar environments for computer graphics: GLSL shader art, Processing, TouchDesigner, Jitter, Three.js, Blender, and more. Going down this rabbit hole led me to a field that perfectly encapsulates my current interests: “creative coding”. You can find some examples of this on Shadertoy and p5.js. Furthermore, upon doing more searching, I found out that there is a school that offers a degree in this very subject— and it just so happens to be right where I'm located— Portland Community College!
Soon after publishing that post, I found, enrolled in, and completed the spring term for the Creative Coding and Immersive Technologies Associate degree. My first term consisted of Audio Programming I (a class in Max/MSP), and Music as a Career (not required for the degree but I learned a lot from it). I aced both classes, and made some cool audio projects including a drum machine that uses sounds from your voice:
As a software engineer, I've noticed that the act of coding often falls into two categories:
Easy stuff – I can just sit down and jot it out without putting much thought into it.
Difficult stuff – the stuff that requires intense thought, debugging, researching solutions, and creative problem-solving.
Another thing I've noticed is that, on a good day, 80% of the requirements are met just by doing “easy stuff”. It's the last 20% that ends up consuming the majority of my time.
After nearly seven incredible years, my last day working as a Software Engineer at OpenSesame will be on Feb 23, 2024. This has been a life-changing experience for me, and I'm deeply grateful to have been part of such an amazing team and company. Education, and communication more broadly, continues to be a passion of mine that I will explore in many ways.
I started working at OpenSesame as an intern when I was 19 years old in college, being the first engineer at the company to work on the revolutionary AI-powered Simon application, significantly lowering the barrier for creating multi-language educational content without the need for a professional translator. Throughout my time on this team, I have gained proficiency in full-stack TypeScript, event-driven microservices, AWS infrastructure, Terraform, React, SOLID architecture, and much more, building apps that are scalable, maintainable, and performant. I can say, without a doubt, that working at this company has substantially built up my skills as a versatile software engineer, and having this opportunity as an intern, followed by full-time work immediately upon graduation, is not an opportunity that most software developers have.
Needless to say, I've done a lot of growing since I was 19. I've graduated college, lived with roommates, lived on my own, balanced my budget, experienced romance, played in several bands, taught myself music production, hosted live events with music and visuals, and made tons of connections. This has all been part of my journey from adolescence into adulthood, and I'm incredibly proud of my accomplishments up to this point.
After all this, I've reached a point where I'm constantly asking myself: what's next? What do I really want to do with my life? What is my purpose?