I was taught BASIC when I was around 8 and "helped" my dad with homework when he was in college for a CS degree, but I never did anything with it. I started taking CS courses as a continuing student at William and Mary in 2005 and found I really liked it and was, in fact good at it. My parents had told me that I would be great with computers for years, but I "knew better" and fought them until I wised up.

6 years later, and I've got my M.S., good work experience, job offers when I'm not even looking and enough difficult programs under my belt that I know I measure up well to the stack of people with my level of experience.