As I sit here, looking out over my ‘hood on the first day of my 43rd year, I’m struck by how much my sense of self has changed throughout my life, shaped by the multitude of experiences I’ve gone through.

I remember my early teens and my discovery of the joy and ecstasy of classical music, believing then that I had discovered my perfect career and I would be creating music constantly for the rest of my life.

In my 20s, I discovered electronic dance music, unleashing a primal part of me I didn’t know existed. I shared this world of deep beats, pulsating synths, trance-states and self-experimentation with a passionate tribe, expanding my perspective of the human condition. This showed me the creative possibilities of technology, a love I’d had since early childhood and my first forays into programming.

I then learned how technology, when applied correctly, could help solve many varied problems, and I threw myself into helping others realise the potential of technology. I thought it would be as simple as applying programming logic to real-world problems.

I spent many years trying to get humans to think logically, to realise that the way the system worked was the best way to do things. I rarely got this right. Until, after many years working with different companies, different people and teams, I learned that humans don’t conform to logical thought processes and although this was frustrating, it was also a beautiful aspect of humanity. No two people are the same – infinite variations!

I threw myself into learning more about how people think, act and feel. Actually, I was trying to figure out how I thought, acted and felt so that I could know myself better. I saw that I was only starting to scratch the surface of who I am and who I can be.

This is where I find myself today. A person with a wealth of paths travelled, friends made and lost, scars earned, lessons learnt, dances danced.

I can’t wait for what the next 43 years are going to teach me.