6 years ago I was in high school, rural USA, living in the unfinished attic of a house with a Master Lock on the pantry door (parents' idea of extending food runway). I had also never written a single line of code!

Now I have a beautiful apartment in Manhattan all to myself and I can do whatever the hell I want.

So thankful for everyone on the internet who acknowledged programming as a viable career. If I didn't have the software community telling me all this stuff was possible I never would have even tried.