Irving Martinez

# Hello World.

# My name is Irving Martinez, and I'm a testament to the fact that it's never too late to embrace your passion.

# I didn't start off as a coding prodigy who grew up hacking computers since I was in the womb. No. That was never me; in fact, I barely knew my way around a computer back in high school. It wasn't until my freshman year of college when I was thrust into an introductory Java course that I discovered the magic of programming. Despite the absent professor, I got really good at writing System.out.print("Hello World"). It was love at first compile.

# Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the money ran out, and like most of us, I left college with a broken career compass not knowing what to do with my life. I jumped around jobs, ringing out customers from behind a register, but still coding as a hobby.

# My obsession with coding slowly started to grow. I spent long nights and weekends, consuming articles and videos like a junkie, going into rabbit holes and coming out with a new perspective on life. I was gradually honing my skills. I had a growing determination that I was going to become a "real" programmer someday.

# Needless to say, through persistence and dedication, I transformed from a hobbyist coder to a seasoned Software Engineer with a proven track record of successfully developing and deploying high-quality applications in the financial industry.

# These days you will most likely find me in a hoodie with a pot of highly charged coffee on my desk, my fingers pounding away at the keyboard resuscitating a program back to life. I'm not your run-of-the-mill. I am constantly looking for the next challenge that'll teach me something new about technology and about myself.