Why I joined the ZURI Internship
Published: 2021-08-15 18:36:33


‘Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all’, this is an inspiring quote from Helen Keller. According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller), Helen Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. She was born on June 27, 1880, in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months. 

You may wonder if this article is about [Helen Keller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller). No. Rather, it’s about the inspiration I draw from her quote above. Helen was not born blind or deaf but the lack of those two important sensory organs could have limited her from accomplishing her true purpose in life if she had dwelled in her disabilities.

Many of us are reluctant to pursue our dreams because we are so scared of what the future holds. If you are like me, scared of making a career change, I hope this article inspires you.

My journey into software development started almost five years ago, yes, five years ago. Unfortunately, I had nothing to show for it until a few months ago. I spent years watching one tutorial after the other. You’ve probably heard of the ‘tutorial hell’, yea, I was a candidate in that ‘hell’ until I recently found the light.

I have a fulfilling career as a Senior AML Analyst in one of the renowned AML outsourcing companies in the world. But at some point in life, you realise you’ve reached the ceiling in your career and want something more. You think to yourself that it’s not about the money anymore but your true passion. My true passion had always been to build a career in software development but I just wasn’t sure if I was ready. Like I earlier mentioned, I have a fulfilling career with a good pay and I wasn’t sure of what the future holds if I took the move to switch careers. I limited myself with negative thoughts like, I wasn’t good enough; that I’m too old (in my mid 30s) and late to make the entrance into the software development field. I battled with imposter syndrome and many more.

Realising that life is too short to make excuses from accomplishing what you’re passionate about, I dared to make the move. Honestly, what is the worst that will happen? If I dared  to make the move and failed, I’ll die a happy man knowing I pursued my dream as a software developer and failed rather than not trying at all.

In a bid to finally pursue my passion, I enrolled in a coding bootcamp in [Juno College](https://junocollege.com/) in January 2021. After the bootcamp, while job hunting and in order to keep growing my skills, building my network of like minded developers, building real-world projects, learning how to work in a team of software developers and ultimately get a job as a software developer, I have the opportunity of joining the [ZURI Internship](https://internship.zuri.team/). Just as providence would have it, I came across this program accidentally while surfing the internet.

[ZURI Internship](https://internship.zuri.team/) is a free four months internship programme designed to surface the very best of candidates out of a large pool of participants. It is fast paced and challenging, and helps people learn how to work in teams, deal with pressure and quickly expand their knowledge. 

Now that I’ve found my path. My story is still a work in progress. Did I mention that [FreeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/) was particularly helpful in introducing me to web development and I am proud of the fact that I’m now comfortable building [web apps](https://tobiokunuga.dev) using these tech stack (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and React and more). It is a work in progress. Slowly but surely, I will get there. 

Finally, and most importantly, I’m happy that I’m building valuable skills that will make me employable. I’m really hopeful for what the future holds. After all, life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.