It was October 2022, fall was finally upon us in the Pacific Northwest and school was fully in session. It was our family’s third year homeschooling, and I am the primary caregiver, teacher, and chauffeur. I was in the process of making peace with myself that the professional part of my life was gone forever. I would forever be “just a mom.” Then an old family friend sent me a message about Antisyphon’s Pay What You Can Class taught by John Strand. The message was straightforward, “you should sign up.” I immediately thought of all the reasons why I shouldn’t, to which my spouse countered with “go for it!”
I signed up and the welcome emails arrived. I joined the Discord server, to discover that it was not full of male dysfunction like I feared it would be. All walks of life were present, and there were a couple women in the pre-show banter. I was honestly shocked, and very happy to see it. There even appeared to be female “nerdherders” helping everyone out in the main chat and in the tech support chat. Women could exist in this world.
The class was like a fire hose of information, and I felt mentally exhausted at the end of every day but also came back the next morning for more. Intermixed with the fire hose level of data concerning how to use MITRE AT&CK, were life altering tidbits like stop doom scrolling Facebook. Be intentional with your choices. Yes, taking time to de-stress and watch a show is fine. Binge watching shows and avoiding life is not so fine. Take part in online labs like TryHackMe, Hack the Box, and Antisyphon’s Cyber Range to practice skills. Jason gave his talk on how to job hunt like a hacker. My notebook was filled with information security notes, and a strong helping of fix your life notes.
The final day ended early and ended with John Strand thanking different groups of people. While we were all trying to thank him for improving our lives and imparting knowledge upon us, he had us in tears. He is honest about his own background, and the struggles he has faced in life. He thanked the sponsors, then those who could pay the entire cost for the class, and those who paid some but couldn’t pay the entire amount. Then the man said the words that changed my perspective on life. He thanked those who paid zero dollars, too. He pointed out that *everyone’s* time is valuable, and for those who are struggling the most many times those are the ones whose time is most valuable. They choose to take the course to better their lives and those of their families. This man didn’t know my life, but at that moment he was saying thank you to a class full of people struggling to make ends meet and doing our best to improve our professional aspects. Our time was valuable, and he said thank you.
I do not yet work full time in Information Security, but our family’s life has been positively impacted by that class and every class afterwards that I am able to put my time into. My personal perspective and mental health have improved directly because of that class. Above the actual financial payment for a course, my time that I can commit to it is also valuable. So is yours, and this is well worth it.
