Before I was writing Laravel, I was raising chickens and doing chores on my family's dairy farm. These days the work looks a little different, but the two aren't as unrelated as they sound.
Where I'm From
I grew up on a dairy farm outside Murfreesboro — raising chickens and selling eggs, and staying busy through 4-H. Growing up on a farm means you learn early that work doesn't wait for you to feel like doing it, a habit that's served me well in software, even if the deadlines look a little different now.
I was homeschooled through high school, which meant a lot of self-directed learning early on. That turned out to be great preparation for a career where half the job is figuring out things nobody explicitly taught you — a skill I leaned on more than I expected once I started my internship.
How I Got Into Code
My first language was C/C++. I was always "the computer kid" growing up, and between loving math and loving logic, software development was an easy bet.
The real gateway drug, though, was Minecraft. I spent hours in command blocks and redstone trying to build increasingly elaborate custom games for my friends. I distinctly remember being endlessly frustrated trying to remember when to use { versus [ — with no idea I was actually wrestling with JSON.
Not long after, I built my first "real" program: a C# app that generated custom spreadsheets from my dad's dairy feed recipes, so he'd know exactly how much to order. It wasn't glamorous, but it was the first time code solved an actual problem for someone I cared about, and I was hooked.
In college I got a taste of a few more languages — Python, F#, some others — but it was my internship that changed everything. I had zero web development experience, but a professor vouched for me to Bondware Web Solutions, who took a chance on me. I spent a couple of frantic weeks cramming HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from YouTube tutorials before even touching PHP, then landed straight into Laravel once I started. That fast, sink-or-swim ramp-up is where the self-taught habits from homeschooling really paid off.
Coding Philosophy
Write concise, readable code with minimal whitespace clutter so it's easy to scan. Use comments as section headers for complex logic, not narration. Stay organized, and resist the urge to over-engineer. I'm pragmatic first — I'd rather ship a working solution than write a thesis about the "right" way to do it.
Beyond the Résumé
After graduating, Bondware brought me on full-time as a junior engineer, and I was quickly pulled onto the team migrating a large ecommerce platform off a legacy proprietary system onto Laravel. Eventually I became the sole developer across all of Bondware's projects and started training and mentoring interns to help carry the load. One of them turned out to be one of the best developers I've had the privilege of working with — we hired her on full-time, and watching her grow into that role is one of the things I'm proudest of from my time there.
Alongside that, I've worked with Brockport Research Institute since late 2019 — a project that scratches a different itch. It feels more like mine: I work directly with the client, hear the actual problems they're facing, and have the freedom to experiment with technologies and approaches that a bigger, more process-heavy project wouldn't allow.
Outside of Work
Rock climbing is my biggest hobby these days — I've been climbing indoors for about four years now, and I'm finally making the jump outdoors this fall. I tried a few other ways to stay active, but climbing stuck because it's as much about problem-solving as it is about strength.
I'm also a fairly serious strategy gamer. World of Tanks is where I first got real leadership experience, believe it or not — I ended up leading a rotating group of 10–20 guys through 15v15 matches, ranging in age from 12 to 70 and scattered across the US, Canada, and beyond. Coordinating that many personalities toward one plan taught me more about leadership than I expected a video game to.
I also play guitar (very much an amateur), lean classic country, watch a lot of football (fantasy league included), and I'm a sucker for a good escape room.
My faith is a significant part of who I am — I'm active in my local church, including preaching part-time, which has done more for my public speaking than any class or conference ever did.