The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state, Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started.

Wait...

Ever since The Big Bang Theory arrived on Netflix, I've been binge watching it for two weeks already. I'll go ahead and say it's not the best comedy show but once I got to know the characters and got accustomed to the laugh tracks, I would find myself laughing out loud more often than not at their silly jokes, antics, and vilifications, not to mention some recurring pop culture references. Majority of the episodes I love featured Star Wars and I have been itching to rewatch the series beginning from "A New Hope". However, in the spirit of adventure I dared venture into the vast universe of Star Trek instead. I might have started off on the wrong foot by choosing the Enterprise series; nonetheless, I'm all aboard! To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what have I gotten into and if anyone's interested at all to hear all these. It might probably help to give some light into all this geek nonsense so here's a brief history of my timeline.

At a young age, I already knew I wanted to become a computer engineer someday. Thanks to my father for introducing me to the world of electronics and computer. As I can recall, when I was four years old, my father brought home a gaming console: SEGA Mega Drive. I believe this was when I decided to become a good boy to my parents in order to earn my playing time. I would study well and get good grades consistently so there never was an issue. Eventually, through my father's resourcefulness, we were able to own a personal computer at home. It was assembled and upgraded over time using salvaged parts of old PC’s from my father's office, through which I was able to observe him doing some data encoding, hardware troubleshooting, and electrical maintenance.

However, the real game changer happened when my father brought home a CD labeled “The Apogee Shareware Disc”. It contained more than a hundred DOS (disk operating system) games and in no time, I became the self-proclaimed king of DOS games. In my teenage years, I completed a number of adventure, action, and shooting games. Most especially, I can still remember how challenging every first-person shooter (FPS) was due to the fact that I could only control my character through the keyboard. My personal favorite FPS game was and still is the Wolfenstein franchise. Counter-Strike, though, allowed me to improve my skills and compare my ability against other gamers. Then came Halo, Quake, and role-playing games like Diablo. The more games I played, the more I became inquisitive about how these games are designed and created. I was totally fascinated with how the hardware and software worked hand-in-hand to come up with programs and, of course, games. Taking a computer-related course in college thus became a no-brainer for me.

Wolfenstein 3D

In 2012, I finished my bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering after five long years. Yes, emphasis is rather necessary since that period of time was a roller coaster ride filled with ups and downs. Ironically, the highlight for me was when I almost failed a theology class. The night prior to the final oral exam, I had studied all the thesis statements except one so I was pretty confident the odds were in my favor. What could go wrong, right? Spoiler alert: everything went wrong. Why did I not prepare enough for that exam? Another spoiler alert: games. As luck would have it, I did not lose my scholarship. Regrettably, though, that one mistake robbed me of my chance to make my parents the proudest of all by graduating with Latin honors. They may never ever hear this story but I promised myself I'd make it up to them someday.

"Grades don't matter," they say. "Damn right," I say. I entered my first job in Teradata and underwent their University Hire Program for new graduates. After three months of extensive training and workshops, I graduated as class valedictorian of our batch. Then, I got assigned to the Database Administration practice where I was able to develop my analytical and problem solving skills through SQL development and tuning. Twice a year, I would get certified until year 2014 when I became the first Teradata 14 Certified Database Administrator in the Philippines. To learn more technologies, I moved on to Tata Consultancy Services as an Application Support Analyst and, in two years, I got my hands on various database systems and multiple client applications. In the same period of time, I rediscovered my passion for programming which helped me land my next job in Willis Towers Watson as a Senior Software Developer. I've had seven years so far of building my career in IT while supporting my family financially right from the get-go. Dream come true! Or fittingly in game lingo, "COMEBACK ISRAEL!"

Yet, the game is not over for me. I just reached another stage and I'm simply waiting for my Player 2 to arrive. While I'm looking forward to reach the next milestones, I am excited to finish this book I'm currently reading, the one thing that made me think in retrospect. I just couldn't help but reminisce when I came across a familiar name, i.e. Nicholas Copernicus, my Kris Kringle codename during my fifth grade. Before Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, he was the coolest science guy I knew back then. My list has grown longer and Stephen Hawking has easily overtaken everyone. With vision, intellect, and perseverance, he tackled profound questions such as how the universe began and how it could possibly end. He's certainly up there, shining among the brightest stars.