I Spent Years Actively Avoiding Tech

I did not grow up wanting to work in tech. In fact, I actively ran from it. I avoided coding classes, avoided anything that looked even remotely like engineering, and very confidently told myself I was “not a tech person.” I chose finance and law because they felt structured, predictable, and safe. There were rules, frameworks, and clearly labeled career paths. Tech felt chaotic, overwhelming, and reserved for people who started coding at age twelve.

So naturally, I ended up in data.

Which is still very funny to me.

It Started With Frustration, Not Passion

I did not discover data because I was inspired or ambitious about it. I discovered it because I was frustrated. I kept working with reports and spreadsheets that felt flat and limiting. I could see what happened, but not why. I could see the totals, but not the story behind them. Every new question meant another file, another formula, or another report that would eventually break or contradict something else.

I wanted to explore. I wanted to ask better questions. I wanted to actually understand what was happening instead of just summarizing it.

So I started learning just enough SQL to pull my own data. Then just enough modeling to stop breaking things. Then just enough visualization to make things actually make sense. Somewhere along the way, I stopped being annoyed and started being curious. And somewhere after that, I realized I was genuinely enjoying it.

The Moment I Got Hooked

The first time I built a dashboard that actually answered a real question, something clicked. Not “this looks nice,” but “oh, this explains something.” It felt like solving a puzzle where the pieces were messy, incomplete, and sometimes wrong, and your job was to figure out what story they were trying to tell.

That was the moment I realized data was not just numbers. It was behavior, decisions, and systems all layered on top of each other. It was a way of understanding people at scale, and that felt far more interesting than I expected.

Why My Background Helped More Than I Expected

Coming from finance helped because I already understood metrics, performance, and tradeoffs. I was comfortable thinking about efficiency, risk, and impact. Coming from law helped because I was trained to question everything. Definitions matter. Assumptions matter. Context matters.

That mindset turned out to be perfect for data, because data lies constantly. Not intentionally, but through bad definitions, missing context, or careless modeling. Being skeptical became a skill, not a flaw.

I decided to Take It Seriously

Once I realized this was not just a phase, I leaned in.

I enrolled in an Associate’s degree in Database Development and at the same time started self studying everything data related that I could get my hands on. Analytics, data modeling, SQL, Power BI, product analytics, basic data engineering concepts, UX for dashboards, cloud tools, and how data actually flows through real systems. I treated it like a full time job.

In less than a year, I learned four technical languages, completed numerous projects, and went from barely knowing how databases worked to designing schemas, writing complex queries, building dashboards, and actually understanding what I was building and why. It was intense, exhausting, and extremely rewarding.

Then I Somehow Ended Up Coding an App

At some point, I crossed a line I never expected to cross. I started coding an actual product.

I built Rezonate, a mental wellness and habit tracking app, completely from scratch. I coded the mobile app in Flutter, set up the backend, designed the data models, implemented the features, and then built the website to go with it. I did not just analyze data anymore. I created the systems that generated it.

Building Rezonate taught me more about data than any class ever could, because suddenly every modeling decision mattered. Every field, every event, every metric had downstream consequences. I had to think like a product manager, an engineer, a designer, and an analyst at the same time.

Rezonate’s website lives at: https://rezonate.app. That alone still feels surreal to type.

Data Changed How I Think

The biggest change was not technical. It was mental. I became more patient. I started asking better questions. I became more comfortable with not knowing right away. I learned that uncertainty is not failure. It is part of the process.

Data did not just teach me how to analyze things. It taught me how to think.

So Yes, I Ran From Tech and Still Ended Up Here

I did not leave finance or law behind. I brought them with me.

Finance gave me structure.
Law gave me rigor.
Data gave me a way to build.

Together, they shaped how I approach problems with curiosity, discipline, and respect for consequences.

So no, I did not plan to fall in love with data. I ran from tech, tripped into analytics, and somehow stayed.

And that is how I ended up here, learning, building, fixing things, breaking things again, and still very much figuring it out.

Which honestly feels exactly right.