path: root/README.md

---
title: Origin Story
author: anonymous
date: 2020-07-01
---

# Origin Story
## Mo

# $ whoami

mo khan | software engineer

# $ history

```bash
 1  gitlab --type=dev-tools
 2  cisco  --type=security-product
 3  uppercut --type=agency
 4  arc-resources --type='oil & gas'
 5  ecompliance --type=startup
 6  thoughtworks --type=consulting
 7  medialogic --type=agency
 8  datashapers --type=startup
```

# $ uptime

```bash
00:00  up 16 years,  1 user, load averages: 1.00 1.00 1.00
```

# 1984

* Born in Caracas, Venezuela.
* Immigrates to Canada at age 4.
* Does not speak English.

# Kindergarten - Elementary

* Life at home is rough.
* Dad can't find work.
* Mom doesn't speak English.
* Dad turns to alcohol.

# Kindergarten - Elementary

* Wants to make friends but doesn't speak the language.

# Kindergarten - Elementary

* 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) of us live in a two bedroom apartment.
* Our building has drug and prostitution issues.
* Dads' car windows are smashed and urinated on twice.

# Kindergarten - Elementary

* Dad is abusive.
* Mom is new to the country and takes it.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

* Dad gets job.
* They move to a house with a yard.
* Dad is shipped off to Yemen for work.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

* New school.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

* English has improved but finds that Math is the common language.
* Refuses to speak anything else except for English because he wants to fit in.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

* The new school is mostly white.
* He has trouble fitting in.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

* His name is hard to pronounce, it sounds like Manure.
* He hates attendance.
  * Teachers always pronounce his name wrong.
  * Kids laugh.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

* He dresses in funny bright colors.
* He's told that he smells funny.

# Grade 2 - Elementary

His dad thought that he have a better chance if he could "integrate".
He was sort of right.

# Grade 2/3 - Elementary

* His father is sent home from Yemen and loses job.
* He doesn't know why.
* His dad starts drinking more.
* He decides that physical abuse is easier to take then the emotional abuse.

# Grade 3 - Elementary

* His mother finds a part time job at Zellers.
* She gets people to sign up for a Zellers club card.
* Her English is poor but she does the job anyway.
* She doesn't realize it when people insult her, but her child does.

# Grade 3 - Elementary

* His dad is still unemployed.

# Grade 4 - Elementary

* His mom gets a second job working in the same mall.
* She convinces people to sign up for Zellers club card during the day and Sears card in the evening

# Grade 4 - Elementary

* His younger brother and him walk to the mall after school.
* They sit on a bench across from their mom who is working in a booth.
* They spend their evenings there.
* They are so happy when they can convince their mom to buy them a hot dog from sailors steamed hot dogs.

# Grade 4 - Elementary

* They do their homework at the mall.
* They have to hide if their mother's manager comes by.
* He worries that someone from school will see them. They do.

# Grade 4 - Elementary

* His father gets a night job.
* He don't know he does.
* He hopes his father will cheer up.

# Grade 5/6 - Elementary

* His mother has been working through the immigration process to sponsor her sister, brother and mother to immigrate to Canada.
* His mother becomes a manager of a Macs convenience store in a rough part of the city.
* Him and his younger brother work nights with their mom.

# Grade 5/6 - Elementary

* He learns how to work the front till.
* He knows how to sell lottery tickets, porn mags and cigarettes to adults.
* Yes, he asks for id.

# Grade 7 - Jr. High

* He's the stereo typical immigrant kid.
* He thinks that he has no hope with girls.

# Grade 7 - Jr. High

* He's good at Math but he tries to hide it.
* He buys his first radio from Zellers.
* He loves listening to CJSW on Friday nights.
* He still remembers the first time he heard [Juicy by Biggie](https://genius.com/The-notorious-big-juicy-lyrics).
* The poetic story telling of hip hop helps him realize that he's not alone.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

* His mother saves up to buy a convenience store.
* She continues to work at Macs.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

* Him and his brother work at the store during the day while their mother works at Macs.
* He is robbed while working at the front till.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

* School starts.
* Things start to get complicated.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

* He receives a summons to appear in small claims court.
* He's being sued at the age of 11 for ~= $800.00 CAD

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

* His classmate, Travis, used to beat him up in elementary school.
* Travis was caught using a stolen credit card.
* Travis blamed him because he worked at a convenience store.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

* Something happens that causes Travis' mom's boyfriend to want to collect the money by suing an 11 year old child.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

I'm the bad boy at school. I'm no longer just the immigrant kid.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

Months pass between being served and getting to court. I defend myself in court.
I brought paystubs, calendars and as much data that I had to prove my innocence.
Travis admits to stealing the card # from his mom's office at work.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

Judge scolds Brad for suing a minor. I'm not guilty. Too late, stress, reputation
and negative impact has already happened.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

Dad, mom, aunt, uncle, bro and I live on the top floor of a house. We share 3 rooms.
Uncle sleeps in my bed during the day so that I can sleep in it at night.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

Foothills grocery fails badly. No customers, business shuts down. Family is
devastated and didn't have money to lose in the first place. Home is stressful.

# Grade 8 - Jr. High

I'm relieved that I don't have to go to work anymore.
I was robbed while working the till.

Adults are... not cool.

# Grade 9 - Jr. High

I stopped smiling to make others feel comfortable. I'm tired of it.
People are afraid of me now. I don't know why.

# Grade 9 - Jr. High

> "Are you in a gang?", "Do you know where I can get some weed?".

I don't know why I'm being asked this over and over. If I'm not at school,
I'm working or trying to play video games.

# Grade 9 - Jr. High

Dad used to collect seismic data out in the field. They don't need him anymore
because... computers. He works at Sears now trying to get people to sign up for
a Sears card. He is defeated.

# Grade 9 - Jr. High

Dad buys a Pentium I, 200MHz computer. He doesn't know how to use it or what it does
but he thinks my bro and I should learn it because it took his job.

# Grade 9 - Jr. High

I love the internet and ICQ. People don't judge me based on how I look.
I can be like everyone else. I fit in. I have friends on ICQ.
My favorite games are Quake I, Diablo, StarCraft. Battle .Net is amazing.

# Grade 9 - Jr. High

Mom buys store across from the high school that I am supposed to attend next year.

NO!!!

# Grade 10 - High School

I'm tired of being the immigrant kid. I forge signatures and transfer to a different
high school.

# Grade 10 - High School

First day of school, I jumped on a bus and made my first friend. He just moved here
from Ghana. Wow, my new school is scary but there are more immigrant kids there, like me.

I fit in.

# Grade 10 - High School

Mom is upset that I switched schools. She wanted me to work the store at lunch and
after school.

# Grade 10 - High School

People from Jr. High find out that I went to a different school. Now they're calling me
to see if I can "hook them up with weed?".

# Grade 10 - High School

I'm now in a position where I can access marijuana and we still need money.

# Grade 10 - High School

For the first time in my life, I have 'friends'. I know spend my time doing
what I want to instead of what I have to.

# Grade 10 - High School

I'm kicked out of school for skipping. No warning.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I went from an episode of "Dangerous Minds" to "Barney". I thought I accidentally
walked into a jr. high school.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I have to check in and check out with Mr. Chee. He's the assistant principle.
He saw something in me and I didn't give him much to look at. He saw me for me.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I spend my lunches in the library. Ranchlands posse leader, Chad Buckart,
doesn't like the way I look at him. Tries to jump me in a bathroom stall.
He failed... badly.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I'm labelled again. Aw.. man. I'm the bad boy.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I start working as a dishwasher at Debaji's. Monday -> Friday 5PM - 10PM.
I hate washing dishes.

I get a pager.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I quit dish washing. I still have to pay my pager bill.
I get a job at Domino's Pizza. When asked "Can you hook me up?" my answer
becomes yes. I go to school from 8-4. I work at Domino's from 4:30 - 10:00.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I buy a car.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I graduate from making pizzas, answering phones, cutting pies, routing orders
to occasionally delivering when we're short drivers.

# Grade 11 - High School #2

I'm arrested outside of the Metro night club during a midday all ages dance
for possession of a controlled substance. Constable Ramsey places me in the
back of a police van and jokes with his partner
"We should do him like we do out East, and break his legs and make him walk home."

# Grade 12

tldr;
I'm arrested several times before I realize the only one making money from
me selling marijuana is my lawyer.

# Grade 12

I meet my future life partner and her family.

# Grade 12

Her family invites me to dinner, then again the next day and the next.

# Grade 12

They encourage me and support me.

# School of hard knocks

I enroll at SAIT after doing some upgrading at Chinook College.

# SAIT

I finish a 2 year diploma in Computer Control Technology.

# SAIT

I realize that I'm capable of completing Calculus, Electronics, Programming courses.

# SAIT

I didn't just complete them but I also was also good enough to provide guidanxe to others.

# SAIT

While at SAIT I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights at Domino's pizza as a driver.

# SAIT

I clean parkades and paint lines on Saturdays.

# SAIT

Picking up used condoms, needles and other drug paraphenilia is humbling.

# SAIT

I'm proud to say that I paid my own way through school.
I had the help of the people who employed me.
My manager at Domino's wanted to see me succeed.
So did everyone there.

# SAIT

I finish school.

# SAIT

I'm still delivering pizzas.

# SAIT

I apply for call center positions at Shaw and Telus. I can't seem to get a call back.

# SAIT

I'm sleep walking through life.
I go through the motions of working until 2-3 AM everyday and sleeping until 10-11 AM.

# SAIT

I get a call at 10:00 AM one Thursday morning.
It's someone named Alex something from SAIT.
He was a substitute teacher for one of my courses.

# SAIT

He has a friend who is looking for a C programmer.

# SAIT

The teacher that drove me crazy, Graeme Smith, recommended me.
I can't believe it.

# SAIT

I thought that he dismissed me from the first time he saw me.
I sat in the back of the class with my hat back and I remember him looking at me like
"he doesn't belong here". I wanted to prove him wrong. I did.

# SAIT

He motivated me by challenging me and being the most difficult instructor.

# SAIT

Everyone hated him. I did too, until I didn't.

# SAIT

Then I saw that he had to be tough, it was necessary for me.
I'm thankful for that.

# SAIT

I showed up at an office at 1:00PM of the same day that I received the call.

I met Sergio, he was looking to hire a C programmer to help port a gift card and loyalty applications to different point of sale terminals.

# SAIT

I took 3 C programming courses at SAIT but I didn't think I was a real programmer.

# SAIT

I took 2 C++ programming classes in high school.

Mr. Sag had a phone in his classrooms. He let his students use it. I enrolled in
his course because I thought it would be an easy option and so I could use the phone
when someone paged me.

Mr. Sag gave us a textbook and told us that we would get a credit for each module that we finished.
No lectures, no assignments, no nagging. Go learn at your own pace. This was amazing!

# Programmer

Sergio hired me.

# Programmer

I showed up for my first day of work on June. 14, 2004.
Nobody knew who I was. Sergio wasn't there.
He quit and hired me as quickly as possible to be his replacement.

# Programmer

Kevin Turco met with me in his office. He needed a C programmer because
he had noone else. Sergio and Richard joined Data Shapers through an aquisition.
They both left and the company had committed to deploying a gift card application
for Sport Swap. The first version was to be deployed in September of 2004.

# Programmer

Kevin offerred me $30,000.00 CAD/yr. I said I was looking for $15.00/hr.
He laughed and said that $30,000.00 CAD/yr was $15.00/hr.

# Programmer

My first full day as a programmer was Tuesday, June. 15, 2004.

# Fin

Computers changed my life.

1. It gave me a `$HOME`.
1. It provided me with `$ jobs`.
1. It allows me to `make`.