Saying yes to the scary thing: learning data analytics

Growing up, I used to say that I was not "a math person" and eventually this led to other things that I was not:

• a science person

• a computer science person

These subjects felt too intimidating to think about and even scarier to try to learn (okay, I did try Organic Chemistry, and maybe that is what scarred me for almost a decade...).

So, I stuck to what was comfortable and interesting to me at the time (writing and people) and eventually found myself with a degree in Anthropology. When I emerged from college and traveled back home to California, I found myself wondering 'Now what?'

And that is when I first heard it.

That tiny little voice inside of me, so quiet it was almost like a whisper. Try the scary things.

Psh, why would I do that?!

Only, I did do scary things like:

• Becoming a 911 dispatcher

• Leaving that career after close to 4 years

• Going back to school for HR

• Moving to a completely new state without ever visiting (story for another time)

Yet, throughout all of that the whisper remained and it took almost 9 years for me to finally slow down and realize the scary thing had been right in front of my face the whole time.

In fact, the universe had been trying to talk to me throughout:

• trying coding randomly during downtime at the dispatch center

• being introduced to SQL at previous role

• being required to take an Excel class for that same role

The scary thing was data analytics.

So, a little over two months ago I made the decision to not only listen to that whisper but act on it. I signed up for a boot camp and was determined to finish it in 10 weeks.

I finished it in 8 and realized what all of those years of saying I wasn't "that person" had been holding me back from: what was possible.

And now that I've had a glimpse of what is possible, I'm not going to stop until I see the whole picture.

So, I'm sharing my journey of saying yes to the scary thing and what I'm learning along the way! I hope you'll join me. And if you leave with nothing else let it be this:

Do the scary thing. Not next week. Not tomorrow. Now.