For as terrible as the Covid-19 pandemic has been and continues to be, it catapulted my dreams of being a remote worker! Once it became clear that my spouse and I would be able to move away from the city and keep our jobs we booked it eastward – we drove from San Francisco to New Jersey to live with his parents while we worked out housing elsewhere. Four of us in a crowded little beach house will a crumbling ceiling and a pitbull ridden with fleas. It was good times. And then it wasn’t. Not with work at least. There was no room for growth, I tried so many approaches to working toward my full potential, including doing work for their engineering team without pay, recognition, or promotion. They wanted a cog in their machine and I wasn’t making enough to get us closer to our goal of owning a house of our own one day. The housing market was catching fire and we wanted to get in before it blew up! At this point I thought it best to focus on school for awhile and look for new opportunities. Did I mention I was (and still am) getting my computer science degree online? I am a woman with a non-technical background and I radiate with self doubt. I need all the credentials and more if I’m ever going to make it.