I think confidence is being able to look yourself in the mirror and say "I am great". The way I do this is by using an hourly affirmation app on my phone. It sends me affirmations about self-love once an hour and I read them and reflect. Whenever I get one I tend to read them practically immediately and look in the mirror and repeat it to myself. I feel like confidence also has a different definition for everyone. Confidence could be pushing yourself out of your comfort zone with outfits and makeup or it could be just ordering for yourself at a restaurant. Confidence to me and to other women could be extremely different but share some characteristics. Waking up and feeling good is confidence. Putting on a cute outfit and makeup is confidence. Doing something out of your comfort zone like a new sport is confidence. Confidence is not gender exclusive. Men can feel confident and feel good about themselves too and they should. Everyone should have the ability to feel and be confident.

Technology is forever evolving. One of my favorite advances would have to be the Virtual Reality headsets. I think it’s cool that you can put on a headset and just step into a new world. At my job, we have something called a Virtual Reality Escape Room. With these rooms, you put one of these headsets on and it loads you into a virtual room where you find clues and attempt to escape. You get loaded in and it brings you through a tutorial and then throws you into a virtual escape room. Aside from the escape rooms, virtual reality brings a huge light to gaming. Virtual Reality throws you into the game, it is as if you are in the universe of the game itself which alone is exceedingly cool. Realistically, who wouldn’t want to be inside of their favorite game? To be in the game and be able to interact with things in real-time is just an experience I think everyone should have at least one time in their life. You can also use virtual reality for other things like projects. It’s like a projection of what you’re working on in a 3D model right in front of your eyes. You can put on the headsets, or in some cases, you don’t need a headset its almost like a virtual diagram in front of your face which is extremely helpful and useful for things like engineering projects. You can see every tiny detail of the project In front of you and that can help you tear apart stuff you don’t like and rebuild without the hassle of a physical project.

When I was in eighth grade, I had a technology teacher that taught me a lot about Microsoft Office. I remember thinking how cool it was that she knew so much. I got the opportunity to transfer to Lawrence County Career and Technical Center, and I quickly accepted that chance to further my knowledge in Information Technology. On my first day there, I quickly learned that I was a female in a very male-dominated field. I was the only female in my class the whole three years I attended the school. Although I was the only female, my teacher (who was also a female) taught me so much and enabled me to learn about security. I fell in love with the idea of building and testing firewalls and it is what I have wanted to do since then. I learned coding, programming, and how to build websites. I learned all about Microsoft Office, I'm even certified in some of the Office. The one thing that stuck with me was security, although Linux was very hard it was all extremely fun. I learned how to build and use CCTV cameras and the process behind firewalls, it all intrigued me so much that I knew then and there I had to make a career out of it. Once I graduated from school I jumped into college, and I was lost. I wanted to go to school for IT, but there were so many options out there and I wanted to see what they were. At first, I was in Psychology, and I really enjoyed it, but then I went to Criminal Justice. Like Psychology, I enjoyed Criminal Justice, but it didn’t give me that serenity feeling I had when I was working on something for class. After a few years of me being stupid, and jumping around on majors, I finally came back to my senses and switched to Computer Information Systems. Within Computer Information Systems I was studying Networking and Security, which is what I loved studying in high school. I never had the support from my family to pursue a male-dominated career, but I did have an outpouring amount of support from my teachers. My high school teacher was the one to push me to pursue security and without her, I’m not sure I would still be in Information Technology, she was a huge influence on my decision to stay and pursue a career in it.