Hi, my name is Morgan. A couple months ago, I turned 29 and I decided to make the last year of my twenties an exciting one. To kick it off, I decided to pursue a career change into web development. This journey started back in the summer of 2018. My web developer friends at work had long made fun of me for my lack of “dev words”. I would throw around “github”, “commit changes”, and “hack the mainframe” but that just wasn’t going to cut it. In an attempt to show them I could blend in with the best of them, I started taking a few workshops to learn some new vocab I could throw into conversation. Soon I realized web development was actually very cool and something that would simultaneously alleviate the frustrations I was having with my current career choice. This would be an opportunity to work in an industry that would require constant learning and self-improvement, something I’d been sorely lacking for too long. It was also a set of tools I could use to work in nearly any industry imaginable, from science and medicine (for which I already had two degrees) to environment and climate change, social and economic change, and communications. These are areas that I am passionate about and would love to find a way to contribute meaningfully to through my new skills in web development. This blog is intended to be a place for me to talk about my experiences in the HackerYou Bootcamp in downtown Toronto, as well as my day to day life and hobbies. I’m sure it will evolve over time but for now, that’s the plan.

A little bit more about me. I have a pet cat named Frea who is the light of my life. In my late teens and early twenties, I was really obsessed with all things Swedish and Nordic. In Norse mythology, Freja is the goddess of beauty and war and is pulled in a chariot by a heard of cats. Hence naming my baby Frea (the English spelling). I even went so far as to try and move to Sweden when I was 22. I now live in Toronto and in my spare time I love to eat (and cook), ride my bike, and practice yoga. I love to knit, sip mulled wine, and catch up on the latest Nordic noir series on Netflix. I’ve been trying to read more lately and just finished Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I laughed, I sobbed, and was so inspired by her own story of “swerving”.

I’ve chosen the name “Ninety Degrees” to reflect that this venture down the path of web development is a bit of a “veering off” into another direction from the one I thought my life would take coming out of grad school. This new adventure is a fork in the road—not an about-face—that I hope will only compliment and improve upon the skills I’m proud to have already developed so far in my education and career. I hope I’ll have some insightful, intelligent, and maybe even inspirational things to say in the weeks, months, and years ahead as I document this journey of Ninety Degrees.