Hello, Jade here, just finished watching the "Never mind the Valley..." video. Pretty motivating - I've always respected the Threadless story.<p>I am Jade, 24, from L.A. California.
I've never been out of the country and have only been to Vegas, Tempe, Arizona, and most recently San Fransisco for startup school <3.<p>I opted out of going to college because I didn't agree with the "go to school to get a good job and be forever happy" path to success. Though now I realize that's not what school <i>has to</i> be about but I was young and dumb.<p>Instead I started a custom screen-printing company. I printed custom apparel for high school clubs and sports teams. I learned everything online and in my 3rd year I moved from my parents garage into an actual production warehouse.<p>During this time I dabbled in HTML because I wanted to create a website for my company. As time passed this hobby of mine turned into what I loved to do - I would work and work and work just so I could finish to go learn coding.<p>Finally about a year ago now, after my girlfriend and I parted ways, due to the fact that I was a dickhead that put work before her, I closed my company, ended the lease, and sold everything.<p>I used the year to learn programming full-time, and now I'm here, no money, no job, no credentials, and an annoying smallish debt to attend to.<p>-------------------------------<p>I would like to go to Boulder because my life is my work and my work is being an entrepreneurial programmer. I have to make things, even if that means I'll be living in a cardboard box while building, I have to create.<p>This is not a sob story, I don't want sympathy because my life is fantastic. Rather I want to convey that I learn the hard way. I willingly take these drastic and unfriendly roads. I'm too stubborn and hardheaded maybe but that's just the way it is. I have a lot to prove to myself and to others who grow increasingly worried about me.<p>Boulder sounds like a great place to do that!
Oh yeah, p.s. I love "Man vs. Wild" and I even got to meet Bear Grylls at a book signing <3. So even though I've never been exposed to the great outdoors; I love the great outdoors!<p>Thank you for you time. My plane ticket will cost $169.00.
If I don't get voted up, perhaps someone here has some freelance work I could do to earn ~ $200.00 for the trip. I work with kohana php framework, jquery, and can do moderate design work. <a href="http://plusjade.com" rel="nofollow">http://plusjade.com</a>