My professional life is filled with development. Over the years my specialty has migrated:
In college I was fascinated by low level development: OS development, Networking, Distributed computing. My honors project was building a synchronized symphony of computers controlled on a conductor.
I was accepted to graduate school, but delayed a year to save money, during that year I worked as an intern and learned Java GUI development. I decided to stay a professional instead of going back for my doctorate. I continued to specialize in Java GUI for a while and then transitioning to Java web development.
Today I’m much more of a jack of all trades as my current job requires a much more diverse knowledge base. From various scripting languages, to medical terminology to databases.
Over this time I’ve learned that every area of development has its own pleasures and pains and that they are all equally difficult.
Life isn’t all about development though….
If I had never discovered how much I enjoy software development I would have been a aerospace engineer. I’ve always has a fascination with everything mechanical and always viewed aircraft as the pinnacle of mankind mechanical achievements. These days I’m content designing, building and flying various forms of radio controlled aircraft. I’m also an instructor and the VP for one of my local RC aircraft clubs.
I’ve torn things apart my whole life. My family will attest to that. These days I’ve improved my ability to put them back together. To that affect I own a 1970’s British sports car. If there’s anything ever been built the needs to be torn apart and put back together more often than 1970s seventies British sports cars I haven’t found it yet.