I thought 31 was too late to start over

I was a market researcher. I liked parts of it and I was quietly bored for about four years before I admitted it.

I taught myself to code badly for a year, then took a six-month course, then applied to ninety-one jobs and got two interviews and one offer, at a salary lower than what I had left.

Three years later I had made it back. Eight years later I was an architect.

The part people skip: I had a partner with a stable income. That was not grit, that was a safety net, and pretending otherwise is unfair to people who do not have one.