Lately, I’ve been thinking about the kind of person I would’ve become if I didn’t have access to the internet.
Not in the dramatic, “where would I be without Wi-Fi?” kind of way, but in that soft, reflective, “what version of me would’ve grown without all this digital exposure?” kind of way. Because if I’m honest, most of the skills I use to survive, to earn, to connect, to learn, didn’t come from school. They came from scrolling. Clicking. Trying. Failing. Googling. Repeating.
Sometimes, when people talk about tech, it’s in this distant, robotic tone. Like, “tech is the future,” or “learn a tech skill and your life will change,” like it’s some switch you flip and automatically equals wealth, freedom, and purpose. But it’s not always like that. Sometimes it’s clunky. Sometimes it’s lonely. Sometimes it’s staying up at 2am on YouTube trying to figure out why your Canva image won’t export or why your website looks like a child designed it. Sometimes it’s watching courses you don’t even understand yet, hoping it clicks one day.
But still, I know it’s saved me.
I didn’t plan to leave chemistry behind. But I also didn’t plan to find myself building a digital career from my laptop, in a country where power supply is a lottery and internet bills can humble your monthly budget. Somehow, this is the path I’m on. And truthfully, tech made it possible.
I didn’t need a visa. I didn’t need rich parents. I just needed a decent device, data, and curiosity. And maybe a little delusion, the good kind. The kind that says, “Yeah, you don’t know what you’re doing, but try anyway.”
It started small. Writing content for people’s blogs. Then learning SEO. Then finding out that SEO is both simple and overwhelming, depending on how deep you dig. Then learning how to design pages. Then learning how to optimize those pages for search. Then social media. Then newsletters. Then suddenly, you’re the girl who “does online stuff,” and your aunties don’t really get what you do but they hear you’re making small money from it, so they respect you now.
The thing is, nobody told me this was a path. I stumbled into it. I hacked it together like a patchwork quilt. A little bit of writing here, some design knowledge there, random tools I picked up from free webinars, hours spent reading articles I barely understood until the fifth re-read.
And even though I’m still figuring it all out, I know that without tech, without access to this strange, ever-changing world of digital skills, I might still be stuck somewhere pretending to be fulfilled in a lab coat. I might still be shrinking.
You see, tech didn’t just give me a way out. It gave me a way in, into myself.
I discovered that I love storytelling, not just writing. That I love connecting with people through words. That I enjoy making things beautiful, whether it’s a sentence, a page layout, or someone’s nails. That I can switch careers without asking for permission. That I’m not boxed in.
And that’s powerful, especially in a world that constantly tries to reduce women to “choose one thing and stick to it.”
I don’t want to stick to one thing. I've never. I want to explore. I want to design websites and write heartfelt essays and do voiceovers and sell press-ons and maybe one day run a digital course or community. And it’s tech that makes all of that possible. Not easily, not instantly, but eventually.
Of course, there’s still fear. There’s always fear. What if I’m wasting my time? What if I’ll never earn enough to live comfortably? What if I’m just good at a lot of things but not excellent at anything?
But then I remind myself: I’m still learning. Still building. Still evolving. And the thing about tech is, it’s always moving, as it evolves, it extends a chance to you as well. So maybe I don’t need to have it all figured out. Maybe I just need to keep showing up, keep learning, keep adjusting.
These days, I use Trello to plan my work. I use ChatGPT to brainstorm. I use Google Docs for client drafts. I use Canva to design mockups. I use voice recorders to collect thoughts before they fly away. I’m not some tech whiz, I’m just someone who refused to stay stuck. Someone who’s piecing her freedom together through tabs and tools and trial and error.
I still get overwhelmed, don’t get me wrong. Some mornings I open my laptop and just stare, paralyzed by everything I haven’t done. Some days I question if this “digital life” is even sustainable, or if I’m just faking it better than most. But on the days I feel unsure, I think about how far I’ve come, not just in skill, but in mindset.
I’m no longer waiting for the perfect opportunity to find me. I’m building my own. Slowly, clumsily, but surely. And that, to me, is what technology offers. Not a shortcut. Not a miracle. But a shot. A shot at becoming more than you were told you could be.
So right now, I’m not tech-savvy in the traditional sense, lol. But I’m tech-aware. Tech-willing. Tech-curious. And for now, that’s enough for me.