To My 18-Year-Old Self, Three Years Later in Tech

Happy anniversary.

3 years ago today, you opened your first programming tutorial.

You were 18 years old, waiting to join campus in September, with no roadmap, no connections, and absolutely no idea how much that single decision would change your life. You weren't trying to build a career yet. You were simply curious.

If I could sit across from you tonight, I'd want to have an honest conversation.

First, I want to say thank you.

Thank you for taking the first step when you had every reason to doubt yourself. Thank you for choosing curiosity over comfort. You couldn't see it then, but that one decision would quietly shape the next three years of your life.

I also owe you an apology.

I'm sorry for the sleepless nights, the uncertainty, and some of the incredibly difficult decisions we had to make along the way. At one point, we walked away from a path that looked certain because we couldn't ignore the one that kept calling us. It didn't make sense to everyone, and there were days it barely made sense to us. There were moments when the future felt impossibly far away, and days I wondered if I had let you down.

The truth is...

I'm still not "there."

I'm still learning.

Still building.

Still fucking up.

Still trying again.

Still believing that all of this will be worth it.

But I wish you could see what happened over these three years.

You built a home for yourself in Embu.

Not a house.

A community.

You'll meet people who become friends, mentors, and teammates. You'll realize that one of the greatest parts of this journey isn't the tech; it's the people you get to grow alongside.

You'll organize events.

You'll help others begin their own journeys.

You'll stand on stage and speak at Google events, something that would've sounded impossible to you today.

You'll earn Google Cloud certifications.

You'll discover that the things you once thought were only for "other people" slowly become part of your own story.

And perhaps the achievement I'm proudest of isn't a certification, a talk, or a badge.

It's that you'll inspire people.

Without realizing it, you'll become the person asking questions, sharing knowledge, encouraging beginners, and reminding someone else that they belong in this industry too.

That's a win.

You'll also learn something nobody tells beginners.

Success isn't always loud.

Sometimes it looks like a conversation after a talk.

Sometimes it's helping someone solve a problem they've been stuck on for days.

Sometimes it's watching someone you've mentored achieve something they once thought was impossible.

And sometimes, it's simply realizing you've become someone your younger self would've looked up to.

The uncertainty doesn't disappear.

It just changes shape.

Through every setback, every difficult season, and every moment where quitting seemed like the easier option, one thing never changed.

You never gave up on tech.

It's still the thing that keeps you awake at night; not because you have to, but because you're genuinely fascinated by it. It's still the thing that challenges you, frustrates you, humbles you, and somehow keeps pulling you back every single day.

You didn't choose the easiest path.

You didn't choose the safest path.

You chose the one you genuinely cared about.

Three years later, you're still here.

Still writing code.

Still breaking things.

Still learning how to fix them.

Still chasing the engineer you dreamed of becoming.

Maybe success isn't one destination waiting at the end of the road.

Maybe it's having the courage to keep walking, especially on the days when the road disappears beneath your feet.

So thank you.

Thank you for opening that first tutorial.

Thank you for believing there might be a place for us in tech.

Thank you for taking a chance on a future neither of us could see.

Thank you for taking the first step.

I'll take the next one.

Happy 3rd anniversary.

We've still got a long way to go.