This month (January 2026) marks my second anniversary at Community Legal Services and, weirdly, many other anniversaries as well! It is a funny thing to reflect back on that ten years ago, my life looked entirely different.
Ten years ago, I left working as an after-school teacher to go work as a beginner bike mechanic (mostly working the service counter for small repairs and ringing up people’s purchases). This was at a shop called Bicycle Revolutions where the work largely focused on commuting and transportation, though that year they were stating a race team whose motto was “Go fast(ish).” That summer I would do my second Bike & Build tour from Providence to Seattle as a trip leader, gaining knowledge and skills I would leverage in my future role as the shop manager at Cycles PHL.
Six years ago, at the suggestion of our friend, Ashley, Ruby and I started going to some free money counseling sessions. The program set up three appointments (six if you shared with a partner) with a specialist who helped us work through our feelings about and relationship to money. Ruby had been living together a short time and though we were using a lot of the same phrases about our concerns about money, our underlying anxieties were markedly different.
I won’t go into private details but at least for myself, I had to learn that just because the wealthiest people in the world were awful, that having any financial stability at all wouldn’t make me a bad person (Granted, I do still believe that large amounts of money does poison your brain). I also had to get past the idea that I didn’t deserve any comfort. This was related to the first issue for sure, but some of that was also an issue of feeling I did not deserve nice things (something I’m working through still, but have come a long way). I do deserve to live a comfortable, dignified life. So do you and every one else in this world.
Five years ago, I started my first job as a software engineer/developer/programmer as a Junior Frontend Engineer at Urality. After six months of full time job searching after a coding boot camp I finally got my first gig. It was part time work but a great place to learn and Justin was good at patiently coaching and anticipating pitfalls. Honing my skills there was a large part of how I landed my first full time role at Azavea.
From Jan 2016 to Dec 2020 I was a bike mechanic and bike tour organizer, and then since Jan 2021 I have been working as a developer, largely in web and geospatial tools. In five years of software I have learned so much and been given so many great opportunities. It is funny how different my life looks now compared to 10 years ago, though I imagine that’s always true.
For example: I was a high school sophomore in Jan 2006 and a dirty kid with scraped knees and a southern accent in 1996. In my adulthood so far I have had a new career every five years: Restaurants/catering -> After school teacher -> Bike mechanic -> Software developer. I would like to stay working with web and data tools and especially working on civic and justice tech with Community Legal Services. Like many of my coworkers, I am interested in staying for years and really mastering my craft, even as it evolves as new tech and new justice issues appear.
I feel lucky and grateful for how my career has unfolded and for the opportunities I have been given. I hope in ten years, I look back as fondly as I do over the last ten (not just in my career too I hope).
