Ten years ago I was on my way to becoming a physician. Five years ago my life fell apart. My father had been arrested, my wife filed for divorce, and I couldn't pass board exams to save my life. Everything was falling apart and I came close to ending it all. When I moved back to TN I was at rock bottom. Thanks to some great friends pointing me back toward programming. They did it as a way to keep my mind off the bad things going on in my life, what they didn't expect was for it to be the catalyst that pulled me out of the funk. Now I am a successful developer, graduate student, podcaster, and conference speaker. My story is one of inspiration and how getting into software development helped save my life. In the session I'll tell my story and discuss the things that worked and did not work for me as I learned to code on my own while also having a mentor guide my self study.