Being the first blog. Please let me uncharacteristically indulge myself.
Where do I start?
I guess I start at the beginning.
For me, the beginning was bad handwriting.
When I was in school some time ago, I was told I was “hyperactive” and could not focus in school. I was lucky; there was a place for kids like me. They put me in the class with the other “Special” people. Yes, that is what they called our class; it was the “Special Ed Class.”
Among my classmates were Phil (MS), James(Biploar), Anthony(drug addiction), Tim(speech disorder), Helen(nonverbal), and Danny (cognitive impairment). I can still picture their faces; they were sweet and wonderful kids.
The people in the school system tried their best, and after a couple of years, they decided to do further testing. The results perplexed them. I was well above average in intelligence but couldn’t focus.. yes, you guessed it, I had all the hallmarks of ADHD.
Fast forward to grade 6, and I was thrown back into the regular stream school and desperately needed good handwriting; unfortunately, it was not forthcoming.
I was a lefty, and they insisted I should be a righty to be able to write well; hence to this day, I am a bit of a scrambled egg in terms of my sports hand preference.
My parents tried their best, and with little money and very little guidance, it was clear that I needed a computer to write my assignments. Unable to afford one, my mother got talking to someone in the hospital she worked in, and it was decided that I should build a computer. It was an Apple Clone.
Birthdays and Christmases passed, and with each one, I got RAM memory, sockets, a power supply, a case, a monitor and the piece de resistance, the 5 1/4″ Floppy.
Soldering and troubleshooting the motherboard (a bad trace) eventually led to me being able to begin typing on my new PC.
Unbeknownst to me, what began as a dependence on technology, soon became a love for all things technological and fueled my curiosity, driving my need to understand how things worked.
After graduating from university, the need to make a life for myself drove me to join the family trade of choice, Sales. Although I enjoyed the majority of my time in sales, my approach was at times unpopular as I always insisted on a strong technical foundation underpinning any solution I put forward. Many of my early contemporaries relied more on steak and golf, with varying degrees of success.
With the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in Canada, found myself looking for a new career.
Opportunities came forth, and new doors opened. It was the first time I allowed myself to embrace my inner geek. I feel foolish for not doing so before, it is rewarding in ways that I never dreamed were possible.
These days I find myself working with many many great people.
I am so grateful to have been allowed to learn about technology and computers. I return my gratitude by devoting myself to helping others on their journey.
Kind Regards
Michael Patterson.