This month for T-SQL Tuesday we are asked to describe our “Why”.  I have a couple of Whys not related to my day job, but we will start with my day job.

Since I was six years old, I wanted to be a computer programmer because I thought video games on the Atari I had were cool.  I grew up and never lost my fascination with computers.  In seventh grade I ran a project to collect weather data using the state’s bulletin board system and got my first home computer.  It didn’t do much, but I got to computers from my Uncle Elden, who just past away last month, one on MS-DOS 3.1 and one on Q-BASIC.  It took me three days to read those books.  The following summer I was up visiting my family, and my cousin had a computer that was to be taken to my uncle to get repaired.  I stayed up all night writing a password protect program to boot up that even showed every asterisk in a random color.  The computer books failed though to teach me CTRL+BREAK and my uncle was around my little program, but I still had fun.  I also collected sports cards (yes I was and still am a tomboy) and I had a program called MyDatabases (yes I started databases early) that I kept my collection on.

Fast forward I get a degree in computer programming, become a DBA, and land a job that supports my career, and I start getting involved in the SQL community.  Here I can help others learn SQL and my SQL kick a** at my job.  I love finding bugs and having to call support.  I also like testing the limits and being one the first to put a new feature in production.  Why?  Because how else do you learn.  Continually learning is my why.  What other field (I do know there are others) besides IT that I’m good at where I get to be a student all the time.  Learning is so much fun, and when I go without learning something significantly, it hurts.  So why am I a DBA or in the computer field so I can continually learn and push SQL Server to its limits if possible while helping the company I work for get the most benefit from SQL Server.

I have a couple of volunteer jobs that I support via day job above.  Both of which I’m passionate about and have blogged about before, so I’ll keep them short.  But I’ve identified my core value as “Making a Difference.”  I feel I do that in the SQL Community by presenting and mentoring (at least I hope so if not someone tells me so).  But as a Guardian ad Litem, I make a difference in the life of a foster kid that went through some of the same things I did as a child.  While I talked about such good moments with computers earlier good moments as a child were a rare thing.  You can read more about why I’m a Guardian ad Litem here and here.

Lastly, I volunteer on the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Advisory Council in North Carolina that works to protect the rights of children and adults with mental illness.  I do this again because I like to make a difference but also because I’ve had family members who suffered from mental illnesses and I myself have bipolar disorder.  I joined this council after a stay in a mental hospital over the summer and the treatment I received not being appropriate and unhelpful at the least.  I believe people should be treated better despite their mental illness and given adequate care and rights to access that care.  Having struggled with bipolar for over 15 years, it’s not easy, and I do my best to manage it as my doctor tells me to along with my therapist.

So my why boils down to I want to MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  Everyday and every way and everywhere I can.