A midwest musician at heart that transplanted to Seattle in 2010. I've loved coding since I was a kid. After completing an associate's degree in web development in 2012, I ultimately stayed working in fire and water damage restoration for close to a decade. In 2018, I decided it was time to follow through on that programming dream, enrolled in a bootcamp rather than going back to school to complete my bachelor's, and here I am!

Tinkering in my teens, college in 2010, and a coding bootcamp in 2018.

It all started when my family first got on the internet. I discovered IRC and specifically the mIRC chat client. mIRC had it's own proprietary scripting language for doing all sorts of things. From shortcut commands and automated responses to music players and file sharing bots, it was amazingly robust. mIRC first taught me fundamentals like variables and if statements. I've enjoyed coding ever since.

I even wrote a little Medium post about how my interest was first sparked that you can read here: https://medium.com/@bretthurst_38023/how-chatrooms-introduced-me-to-programming-ce88e9f6666

The thrill of having idea that you can bring to life or a problem in front of you that you can solve. I often tell people that it is like wood working. You build things with code and get to admire the finished product. You get to think and be creative at the same time. It's pretty wonderful!