Nevertheless, Laura Coded (and admin'd and ops'd and...)

I'm what a dev looks like. I'm a DevOps practitioner, a self-taught coder, a self-taught admin, and a beginner-safe speaker.

I'm also an example of what a developer looks like when they've changed careers and came to the industry as an adult. I've been a literacy researcher, a science museum educator, a standardized test editor, and a technical writer. I was the kid who read the manuals and watched as others played video games (though I got to play sometimes, too). I got into hardware as a hobbyist, learned to put Linux on old boxes because I needed a space to tinker with an operating system I had heard about but couldn't afford to mess up the computer that I needed for school, taught myself to solder so I could teach kids at the museum, and picked up Python by myself--and then taught other people how to code from there. When I had an opportunity to prove my coding skills in the real world, I grabbed on with both hands. Little did I know that I was going to be taking on a production environment for a legacy system.

Nevertheless, I coded, admin'd, ops'd, owned prod, knocked over prod, rebuilt, and showed the world what a DevOps practitioner can look like.

I go out now and speak in front of people along with coding and running systems, and I delight in helping people new to tech understand how things work. If I'm going to take people on a deep dive into a topic, I try my hardest to ensure everyone can keep up with me at every step of the way.

For International Women's Day, here's my message to all of you (a little early, yes, but I want y'all to get this): Dream big. Fight hard. Show the world what you can do. I believe in you because I've walked this road with you already. You are not alone.