What most excited me about tech and web development is gaining a deeper understanding of this language that runs our everyday modern world. I will gain vital skills that will make me a competitive candidate in any field. Helping me jumpstart my career in a new direction. I’m excited to see where these skills can take me; the possibilities are vast. I am rebuilding my professional self after feeling burnt out completely from non-profit environmental work and social-political journalism. Direct advocacy, while beautiful and rewarding work, is very heavy and not economically viable. My mental health suffered greatly; I am only now truly recovering. The core of my non-profit career was in bike and pedestrian advocacy. Having lost my grandfather to a pedestrian fatality, I am a deeply passionate advocate, but the years of understanding the slow-moving politics behind the tragedies, while going through a global pandemic, had me in an anxious panic. Meanwhile, my last living elder needed care, so I moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, to care for my grandma until her death. I threw myself into learning and documenting our native language, Benni-Ditzha (Zapoteco), and traditions. This sense of loss exacerbated by COVID and grief created this sense of urgency. I came back to the US to care for my aging, chronically ill parents and now my baby, whom I am raising as a single parent. I carry many barriers, but my greatest barrier is economic. I believe that learning tech and web development can help me overcome that barrier and allow me to move forward with my personal goals of preservation and documentation. I do care so much for my community and the environment, but it’s no longer sustainable to operate from a place of passion. The stability that comes with these tech skills is what I am working towards.
Now that I am a mom, my brain chemistry has reworked itself. Now, I need to be the provider, the example that my daughter will strive to follow. One of my goals in learning this technology is to aid in storytelling and revitalization. My grandfather was tragically killed when I was only one, and with him went our direct connection to our native language. Because of migration, assimilation, and fear, our indigenous language is on the brink of extinction. I spent the past years learning and documenting our last living elders on video. With Tech, I aim to help create an online presence that might help our language come back to life. I see myself helping tell these stories. Helping the journalism of my colleagues through data-driven graphics and user-friendly websites. Reach wider, international audiences through visual data.
Tech and web development can help advance those missions and my passions in a more economically secure space. I am looking forward to the opportunities these tech skills bring and what doors open.
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