The Email That Nearly Stopped Me From Becoming a Developer

This is a submission for the 2026 WeCoded Challenge: Echoes of Experience I stood on stage in front of a nearly full cinema hall that had been converted into a conference venue for the day. My slides filled the enormous screen behind me. Bright white lights shone straight into my face, making it almost impossible to see the audience. I had been preparing for this talk for several weeks. Not because the topic was difficult. Quite the opposite — I knew it very well. But there was something else in the back of my mind. How do I convince the audience to trust me? I am not a programming celebrity. My last public talk had been more than five years earlier, and I was pretty sure nobody remembered it. And, if I'm being honest, I don't exactly look like the stereotypical senior developer or team lead. More like: “Where did she even come from?” Of course, all of this existed only in my head. Conference audiences are usually wonderful and supportive. Still, the thought kept returning. There had t