I am 22. Am I too old for learning coding?

I can answer from experience.

I received around a 2.0 in high school and enrolled in a junior college in 2009 to study acting before dropping out in 2011. At 19 years old, I weighed about 350lbs, had horrible social skills and no real options in life.

What did I do? Just what any other kid would do in that situation.

I hitchhiked across America alone and visited amazing places along the way.

That gave me the confidence to lose weight

And then I decided to grab a backpack and buy a one-way ticket to Portugal to travel for a bit. I ended up in 16 countries over about 45 days on a budget by staying in hostels and eating street food.

Then, I did a couple of deployments as an infantryman in the Marine Corps

and married my soulmate.

I left the Marines at 26 years old and made it into a great school where I study computer science and hold a 3.7 GPA with over 80% of my courses being STEM-related. Not bad for a former acting major and college dropout. (also I got a few dogs at some point!)

Now I’m 27 and going to be a software engineering intern at Microsoft in their core operating systems group. It’s funny to look back at how my life has changed in just 8 years.

In short: No, it’s not too late. Not too late to learn how to program. Not too late to change your life.

EDIT 4/22/19: It warms my heart to see how many people have connected with my story. I wish you all the best in your life adventure!

 

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