Where Am I, and How Did I Get Here?

I’ve come from a life that has always been very computer orientated. From a very young age I was always into gadgets, new toys I could play with. The computer was always my favourite however, and for that reason I began to explore it for more than just playing games. I began experimenting. Now, experimenting is not always a good thing. Many a time a new, ‘experimental’ recipe someone thought would be good has resulted in take away food from the local Chinese. But with the PC it worked. I found numerous ways to have fun on the computer, one of the first was using MS paint, a very basic design package, but over the years I began using more and more advanced packages. I moved onto Photoshop and FrontPage, and within no time at all had soon created my first website using my own ideas and designs.

I was hooked.

For this reason, I took up an ICT course at Wakefield College after leaving compulsory education. The course gave me an insight into various ICT units, but it was the second year I was really looking forward to. The web design units. Finally, a chance to get my passion recognised for something, instead of it floundering around, unnoticed on the internet, or sitting hidden deep on my hard drive for no one to see. At this stage I was having doubts about web designing for a living, and instead was thinking about taking up Journalism (another of my passions). For this reason I decided it was best to apply for both on my UCAS application. After doing website design at college, and having an interview for web design at Wakefield, I had made my choice - Web Design.

This now brings me to my reason for writing this. It is not so that in 50 years, when I’m old and grey, I can see what I was like as a child, but hopefully, so that in 2 years, I can look back at the end of my course at Wakefield and see what I gained from the course, and if it is what I expected.

My main reason for joining the course is to have fun and enjoy it, but I am also hoping to use it as a stepping stone, either to a job, or a full degree at university. Presently, all the skills I have learnt about web design, graphic design, etc. have been self taught skills. Something of which I am sure a lot of employers could do without. For this reason, I hope that from the course, I will gain the necessary experience and qualifications to further my career and advance to the next step.

Now, I’m no stranger to hard work, but I know that to get to where I want to be in 2 years will take a lot of hard work, probably a lot more than I’ve experienced before. But at the end of it, when I’ve gotten the right qualifications to get the job I want, I’ll be able to look back, and know it was all worth it.