Session

Like many in our community, I came to opensource from a non-traditional route. In this session I will share my journey to open source technology professional from a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Studio Art and minoring in Theatre, Master of Fine Arts in Theater and, a certification in Non-Profit Management.

You might ask, "Your degrees are in what?!"

Lets throw into the melange, severe learning disabilities discovered when I was a child.

How did that take me to making a career in the world of open source? How did these building blocks in life set me up to successfully metamorphose from fine artist to contracting as a technology professional for Pfizer?

This session is directed at anybody who lives their professional life through the lens of:

• Imposter's Syndrome
• Having Learning Differences like dyslexia and ADD that influence self image
• Is finding their way to Drupal in non-traditional ways and feels "different"
• Parent of a child with these kinds of challenges
• Surviving a disease (I'm a cancer survivor) that impacts you professionally and personally

Discussing my experiences can help you:

• Recognise your own moments when everything can pivot, in ways that will positively impact your life and career
• Realise that percieved weaknesses can, in fact, be strengths
• Commisserate - I hope my experiences resonate with some of your own.

As a child, my parents were told that I was bright, but I would likely never learn to read or write. In retrospect, the very challenge of my learning disability made a positive impact, helped me be open to opportunity, and drove to choose a completely unexpected career.

At every step of my life, I was in the right place at the right time, grabbing opportunities where they could be found. Whether it was learning to read because I wanted to sing in a choir, or happening to be part of a crazy online project with a Dance company when the World Wide Web was in its nascent form, or pushing the boundaries of what an MFA in arts administration really ought to be - understanding those moments where your life pivots and taking full advantage of them can make the difference between success and failure.

I’ll also openly share my own pitfalls -- professional, medical, and academic. Any of them could have become a weak link in the chain that brought me to my current role, but I clawed my way out and kept going.

In the end, this will be a celebration of the diverse ways people can, and do come to amazing communities like ours.