1st Post

This is my first blog post and honestly I don't know how I feel about it. I am a more reserved person and have some social anxiety. I have a hard time being comfortable around anyone, but I need to put myself out into the world. I need to start living instead of just waking up, going through the motion, and going to sleep. I also need to show my children that there is a large world out there and if they are determined enough, they can do anything they want.

I am a father of three children ages 11, 14, and 17. I am in my mid-30's and woke up one day to realize that my life was slipping by. I love my children and am proud of them, but I don't want them to be my only accomplishments. I spent most of my adult life working in construction or operating a CNC machine in a small factory. I dropped out of college to work full-time when my girlfriend was pregnant with our first child and I did work full-time. I would say that on average over 15 years, I worked over 50 hours/week. I think the constant work might have been what kept me from thinking about my dreams so much. It wasn't really until I was talking with my oldest daughter about college that I realized, I had my own aspirations. They had been quietly sitting back there all of this time, just waiting for me to get the "time" to pursue them.

At that moment, I enrolled on college online at Champlain College and began the pursuit of my bachelor's degree in cyber security. I wasn't sure at the time if certifications or a degree were the smart bet, so I decided to get both. I have been getting all the certifications that I can afford and I absolutely love it. I forgot how much I enjoyed just learning. I realize that a lot of the certifications are not hands on and to help make up for that I began building a home lab. I also began doing modules on the Hack the Box Academy.

I am just building out what I want this blog to be, but I think I am going to divide it into sections. I want one section that I use for home lab projects, one that details cyber security related home lab projects, one that talks about the different certifications processes, and possible one were I talking about being a father of three children while pursuing these projects. I am not sure how I feel about the last one, but I think it could be helpful for someone to hear that they are not the only one struggling to balance family, work, and life.