Hi all! I am Javian Anderson and in the spirit of trying new things, I am undertaking my first ever blog writing! This is a new journey for me and I thought to myself, what better story to start with than the inspiration that got me to this moment.

During my high school years at The Titchfield High, I was always a consistent kid, though I must admit, knowing my capabilities, I kind of just glided through my first few years while I enjoyed the time but I always placed in the top 10 of my class. Fast forward to the ninth grade I decided that I needed to actually not slip up as this was the year where your performances decide which discipline you are placed in and I was aiming to be in the sciences.

Graduation 2016

In true jumping the timeline fashion; 9 CSEC passes, 3 CAPE passes, a quiz quarterfinal, and several other mentions later, I was sitting there in the Biology lab at school reviewing my offer from UWI and singing to myself “Yep, Gonna do BioChemistry”. I’ve always had a love for Mathematics so with Chemistry, it was like a close second love. Then there was Biology with the intimacy of knowing what happens in humans and other living organisms, which was so enticing, except for the part when I had to be drawing(wow those were the hardest things to do!). I never wanted to end up teaching Mathematics so the decision I made came down to what was the most economical field to go in that will set me up for the future, and at the time, an 18-year-old thought that choice was Bio-Chemistry.

So here I was, after weeks of telling everyone I was gonna do Bio-Chemistry, my coach(and mentor), Chase Roberts, JP, said to me that he didn’t think that was really my niche. I was shocked of course because he had done a Bachelor’s in the same field(which I had forgotten in the longest while to be very honest) and so I thought he was going to say “Yeah man, definitely!”. But as I engaged in the conversation, and he was telling me what not to do, I was taken aback because one of the things he potentially warned me could happen was to end up doing the thing I never wanted to do, which was teaching. It was not that I was against teaching, but I knew that was never going to be a field I was interested in under no circumstances ever.

Myself and Mr. Roberts at a Quiz Rally hosted by DeCarteret College

Among the other things he warned me about was how the market is not only competitive for Bio-Chem graduates but very small, so small you’ll end up taking a job far left from what you did in school. So as I was sitting there engaged, I asked “Then what exactly fits me?”. I remember he said, “Manuel, look at what you’ve been around for years and what you are gifted at”(Manuel was my nickname I got while in quiz). I was still confused but then he said “Computers, technical stuff”.

I was left dumbfounded because he was right. I had gotten my first computer at the tender age of around 7/8 and ever since I have done many things on a computer that you would find normal children doing. You could call me a hacker, but not the kind you are used to. Ever since my first computer, I have partaken in repairing Computer Hardware by pulling down an entire machine and replacing parts, granting software requests for myself and those around me, fixing software and hardware-related issues on powered-on computers to even setting up networks in my house among other things. I even used to deliberately go to a computer store to fix issues I knew I could fix myself and then wonder how people fall for their scam because I thought they were fakers and I could clearly do a better job than they(Yes, I was a menace). So I’ve always been experimental with computers and other devices but I have never thought about a career in IT/Com. Sci. up until that point in time.

Was I scared that this might actually be my path? Yes. But was I going to take the chance? Also Yes. I had to go home and convince my mother that this was going to pay off though because she didn’t see that coming and neither did I! However, I stuck with the decision and 4 years later, I think it was the right one. I actively enjoyed my degree program, even the times when shit did hit the fan and I felt lost, I would not trade it for another program.