Lincoln, Nebraska; August 26, 1994: the day the Earth gained an extra few pounds of me. 

Growing up, I was always just a bit different than other kids, in more ways than my brains. I have had to get my arm removed from multiple plastic toys, split my chin open twice, and have almost drowned more than a couple times. Needless to say, Preschool was tough. Once I finally made it to the big leagues, kindergarten, I was an unstoppable learning machine. I read books left and right, finding new vocabulary before nap time. This continued for years as I began to read at a post high school level by the time I reached 5th grade. One would think an illustrious English career was in my future. Then in a twist of fate, I was introduced to the new love of my life: a computer.

Now I was hooked. I was either in the lab or in class at school. I was still learning everything I could from classes: Math, Science, kinda English; but, this technology allowed me to expand it. I could learn about whatever else I wanted to just by going to Google and having even a faint interest. Then I started to learn how to make it do the work for me. My initial plunge into programming happened at an experimental "LOGO" class in 7th Grade. We worked in teams to move this little turtle around the screen; fascinating. Then LEGO LOGO arrived and we could use that knowledge to make little robots move around obstacles; extra fascinating. Now I was cooking with virtual fire. I wanted to know more, create more, and do more with technology. I had a plan ready to go for when college hit. It just hit too hard.

To say my first jump into University was a disaster is an insult to disasters. Look at me over here, literally 0 confidence in life right then. I thought I had it planned out, but the interest just seemed to disappear and the plan was backfiring hard. Some programming was fun, including a really engaging Ruby class under Professor Ramsay; but there were no more turtles. No more "fascinating" moments. I would look at the high-level classes and think: "they sound okay". There went all the passion and drive I had before, with a shrug and an "eh". So I was out, forcefully. I failed too many classes to continue studying at UNL and was removed from my program. I thought I was done for in life, nothing else I did seemed to matter and there was no more direction. All the potential of my primary school days felt wasted, burned, and trashed. I never turned to anything illegal, just left my future aside and lived day to day doing 90% of nothing. This was my rock bottom.

There's something to be said about lights and hope. Here's mine. I was bartending to make rent when this absolutely beautiful girl walks in with one of my co-workers. She sits at the end of the bar as I ask her if there's anything I can to do help. Thankfully, I had gotten used to being confident up front, because I was shaking down in my core. She couldn't drink yet, so I made something non-alcoholic and asked for her name, "Erika"; amazing. It was karaoke night so I pestered her to sing, she eventually caved and gave me one song in a voice that could melt the walls and reality down around me; extra amazing. I offered her a drive home since the co-worker she came with was working a late shift. Now, I could've been a deviant, murderer, or kidnapper; but, oddly enough she agreed. That was the start. She had finally poked a small hole in the darkness surrounding me to let in just the smallest beam of light. I could see that I had a future now.

As I have been working with Ascend, I have proven and honed my troubleshooting skills. After the first year and a half, I was promoted to Senior IT Operations Analyst. I had become a source for others to come to for answers and was able to solve some very difficult issues. Admittedly, some of those fixes were from "testing" things that might cause the issues, and it just somehow worked. I was also gunning for the position I had been aiming for since I started there: Security Analyst. Shortly after the promotion, I was interviewed, and hired for that transfer within the company. Starting in July, I began shadowing SOC desk activities, and in August I started full time on the desk as a Security Analyst.

After a few months of working in the Security desk, I decided to reach for more. I applied to a Helpdesk position at Lincoln Electric System and miraculously got the job. It may seem like a step back to some, "Hey Connor, you were in security and then you dropped back to Helpdesk? What Gives?" Well you *probably* don't see what I see: a way to closely integrate with more technology. I picked up what I could from Ascend but it was time for me to move on. Working at LES has provided me a way to learn different technologies to master as well as network into other areas of IT I had never thought of before. After starting in June of 2023, I have been continuously looking to improve every area of my technical knowledge. Things like SCCM, Intune, DUO MFA, and VPN technologies that I had never worked with before. I get to work literally side by side with Network and Infrastructure Engineers to learn those and figure out how they fit into overall security postures. There's an upside to everything and I hope to continue this strong growth.

I know that it takes time, but, one day I'll make it to a CIO, CISO, or security administrator position. I also have an interest in Digital Forensics and want to make a push to create new laws and statutes involving Digital Examiners in cases.