From Truck Driver to WAF Developer — My First 8 Months of Code

This is a submission for the 2026 WeCoded Challenge: Echoes of Experience I'm 42 years old. For most of my life I've been a truck driver — long routes, early mornings, a life measured in kilometers and delivery schedules. It's honest work. But at some point I looked at where I was and thought: I want something different. I want to grow. So I started coding. No bootcamp. No CS degree. No mentor sitting next to me. Just a computer, the internet, and a stubborn refusal to give up. Why Software Development? It wasn't a dramatic moment. No single event that changed everything. It was a slow realization that the world is built on software — and I wanted to be someone who builds it, not just someone who uses it. I wanted to change my social status. I wanted to prove — mostly to myself — that it's never too late to become something new. That 42 is not a wall. That a truck driver can learn to think like an engineer. The First Green Light Eight months in, I built my first working system. Not a t