Vraja

Ever since I was 16 years old I had dreams of becoming a web designer. I came across some free sites, and started practicing. I spent every free moment of my day with it. Inbetween school, before dinner, way after I should have gone to bed, you could find me typing away, adding tags to my latest line of code. I mostly self taught myself HTML, and this would be later refined through books and some tutorials.

Over the years I was able to get in with some friends who actually did web design and development as their jobs. I would help maintain and update websites, and began to learn about CSS, PHP and SEO. Over the years it was always a side project for me however, not out of want, but out of necessity all my time couldn't be spent on it.

Several months ago I got introduced to Drupal. What an upgrade! No more having to use Dreamweaver to update html pages one by one, tediously uploading them through FTP after. Almost everything could be done right in the browser, and furthermore, command line. My friends gave me training videos and books, and I spent a few months going through them all, daily learning what I could. I also spent some days with them, and received compliments on my quick learning and aptitude. But practice, only goes so far, you need a real project to progress.

I was able to get one, a business site for a friend. I made progress, but still hit a barrier after a point. I needed more know-how, more Drupal. Punching things into Google only took me so far. I found out about the conference, and managed to get a plane & conference ticket. Finally it seems my sustained youthful dream of becoming a web designer maybe realized.

I fly in under two weeks, with high aspirations, many questions, and an open mind. I hope to return with a job and a way forward to keep applying my love of the web and Drupal.