Over the last two weeks, I have been given the tremendous opportunity to intern with the School City of Hammond. I, along with Brandon Burgess, have been closely following the lead of Jon Emery of the IT department. There I have done a tremendous number of things already.

One thing from the last two weeks that I will value most looking back in the future was my opportunity to talk directly with the men in charge of crucial responsibilities within the school district. One was Bryan, the lead of Cybersecurity in the district, and Travis, the lead programmer and network architect for the district. After nearly 2 hours of discussion with both of them individually, it has given me real insight in what I actually want for my own future. I learned a powerful lesson from both of them.
For Brian, he told me that you can never be a one-man army. My aspiration to be a near cybersecurity supersoldier was challenged by one phrase. He explained that being able to identify a problem and applying a solution are two wildly different skillsets. Although his attention may have been to assure me that my goal, yet impossible, isn’t unattainable because of my own circumstances or skillset, but rather the unbreakable rule of human ability. I shouldn’t be disappointed when I do inevitably fall short, while also making clear that aiming for such a goal, with the expectation of inevitably falling short, isn’t flawed.

Travis taught me something a little more superficial and specific, but something just as important for me to learn and process before continuing my IT pathway. He emphasized the importance of programming languages, and how fundamental that information is in ALL fields of IT. Whether you are writing complicated scripts every day, or are simpl someone who rights on Word documents, being able to write and read the most common and accessible types of code are essential to efficiency and optimization in the field.

My goal to become a figurehead in Cybersecurity has become different to me now, I feel like I am looking through it less as a daydream and more as a marathon, where building stamina and skills are the only way to ever achieve it. These men have opened my eyes to the field that I was demoted with only a few weeks ago, and now that flame glows stronger than ever.

Thanks for reading.