Started exploring cybersecurity and penetration testing. I didn't learn enough to design novel exploits, but it introduced me to Linux, networking, operating systems and basic security concepts.

I had a few novel website ideas that I wanted to bring to life, so I began learning web development. It took time (there was no AI back then!), and after exploring different tech stacks I finally settled on XAMPP as my tool of choice.

Alongside web development, I began exploring how I could build tools that would run on my laptop instead of on a webpage. Using Python, Perl, Batch and Bash I was able to build a lot (hundreds!) of basic utilities that could perform useful tasks. I only ever focused on building programs I would find useful (because that's why I learnt programming in the first place!). This approach gave me exposure to different technologies and systems ranging from macros to cryptography to file systems and helped me find purpose in what I built.

Revisited web dev with the intention of making websites that would provide services to users around the globe and hopefully prove to be a successful business model. I experimented with multiple different ideas. In the end, two of them went live.

• I built a website called NCCBooks that residents of my apartment complex could use to order books from the home library my brother and I started. The website was a great success and operated for about a year before we closed the business.
• ToastMail is an email reminder app I built back when I didn't have my own phone yet and wanted a way to remind myself of things via email. At the time I wanted to grow it into a popular service, but I realised towards the end that the visual quality wasn't really up to par (it was my first major XAMPP project, after all) and being rather burnt out by the end of it, I never really attempted to have it gain traction.

Looking back, I think the most valuable part of this experience was that I used a framework like XAMPP without any abstraction layers, meaning I had to build everything from stateful authentication to databases to user interfaces from the ground up, which gave me a strong understanding of the fundamentals.

I wanted to try working on web development projects for real-world clients, so I set up a freelance profile over the summer and managed to secure my first gig within a week. I was tasked with building a website for an upcoming restaurant in my neighbourhood and successfully delivered the product ahead of schedule. The value of everything I had learned during my time off became evident as I noticed that compared to the websites I'd built previously, these were

1. Much more aesthetic in terms of design and user experience
2. Far more efficient in terms of development process and optimisation
3. Thoughtfully made to maximise user conversion and satisfaction

While developing the website for a client was a good experience, the ROI on time invested freelancing wasn't satisfactory, so I didn't take any gigs after that.

Building and innovating for fun and fulfilment

1. Exploring software systems and cybersecurity at a slower, more methodical pace, focusing on crafting tools from scratch and developing a deeper understanding of the underlying principles and mechanisms.
2. Developing applications and services with the goal of building useful systems that provide value to both users and myself.
3. Learning more advanced frameworks and technologies to help increase my efficiency in software and web dev.
4. Research revolving around GNNs and NLP.