About Me

Finding My Lane in AI

February 24, 2026 9:30 AM

At this moment, I am taking a few minutes to sit in silence and finally give myself time to reflect on what I’ve been doing the past couple of months—really, the last several years. As of today, I am enrolled in and almost done with the Google Skills Intro to Generative AI path. I have restarted my daily lessons on SoloLearn, which I began in 2017. I completed the HTML course in December 2017 and the CSS course in March 2018. Now, in February 2026, I am learning a little bit about Python, although I could use a little refresher in HTML and CSS. Finally, I am enrolled in IBM’s Skills Build AI Practitioner path. The goal is to expand my knowledge and earn an income with the AI knowledge I gain from Google, IBM, SoloLearn, and YouTube videos. Specifically, I am more interested in the training, ethics, and application of artificial intelligence than I am of the programming and coding aspect of it. This could look like me working for a company remotely, or it could look like my blog growing into a great resource for other people, specifically 30-something Black women who are changing careers, or both.

Where did I come from?

I’ve had a computer in my home since I was eleven years old. As a matter of fact, twenty-five years later, I still have and currently use the same email address that I had when I was eleven. It still works. Why change it? I’ve collected email addresses like Thanos collected Infinity Stones over the years.

My life would look totally different if I hadn’t had a computer—if I had never been introduced to a home computer as an adolescent. Somewhere around the age of thirteen, I learned about online surveys and blogs, and both have become an integral part of my life. Old faithfuls that I know will always be around as long as there are computers and the internet. As a matter of fact, the reason why I took the SoloLearn courses back in 2017-2018 was that I wanted to have more control over my blog designs instead of only relying on the “What you see is what you get” drag-and-drop options.

At heart, I am a creative writer with an entrepreneurial spirit who happens to have a knack for understanding consumer technology. I started writing poetry somewhere around the third grade, and I’ve been writing ever since. I took the idea of journaling personally when I was a child. According to my dad, he still has old journals and notebooks I scribbled in when I was eight.

There was a website called PoetryPoem.com, which was my first online home. It technically still exists now, but it isn’t exactly up to 2026 standards. I have no idea if my little poetry website still exists, but that’s where it began for me. I’ve had a presence online ever since. I don’t only write poetry anymore. Now it is book reviews, tarot readings, personal essays, and whatever else comes to mind.

Aside from videos on YouTube before 2026, where else did I glean tech knowledge from? Retail.

My Personal Retail to Tech Pipeline: My Work History

For a few years, I worked as a brand ambassador for numerous brands. What did that look like? That looked like me visiting big box stores like Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Walmart, and interacting with both the staff and the customers to raise brand awareness about the product I represented. Honestly, I didn’t care for it. I’ve always done very well in customer-facing positions. When I applied for jobs in the past, regardless of how much I wanted to stay in the back, I always ended up being pushed to the front because I’m naturally agreeable. I guess I just have one of those faces.

Part of raising brand awareness is knowing the brand and the products. None of this information made me an expert in the industries I represented, but since I am inquisitive, it led me to search for competitor products and more information about the business so that I wouldn’t look crazy spitting out the selling points I was trained on while not being able to answer any questions otherwise. That means I learned a few basics about cybersecurity from my time representing Webroot. I learned a few tidbits about processors when I represented both AMD and Intel at various times. I was able to pick up a few pieces of information about the newest models of home appliances, like washers, dryers, and refrigerators, when I was a merchandiser for LG. I’ve been a brand ambassador/product demonstrator for everything from snacks to fitness trackers to Wi-Fi routers.

My time as a rep for Webroot introduced me to the idea of working in cybersecurity. I wasn’t sure how to go about it then, and I felt like I was on a roll at that time in my life. I was making progress that I hadn’t made in a long time, and I was experiencing the ups of raising my credit score, building my bank account, and eventually buying a car. I think about whether or not I would change anything that happened in my life between 2015 and 2020, and sometimes I think I would, but I am not sure what I would change. Ultimately, I chalk it up to my just not being ready yet for whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing.

In 2019, I was struggling. I had lost my job. My mom was dying. And I had an almost five-year-old. I saw where Coursera had partnered with some big tech companies and had a certificate for IT Support. I started it but never finished. I beat myself up over it for a while. In hindsight, I was trying to take that course while my mother was in the last months of her life. Sure, some other folks might’ve kept focus on the course while all of that was happening. However, I look back on that time and give myself a little more grace now that I’m a few years removed from it.

So, what brought me here? I need to rewind the clock some more.

In 2012, somewhere between my years of cashiering, tax preparation, and product demos, I began mystery shopping. How does one become a mystery shopper? Research. I don’t even remember how I came across the first opportunity, but it piqued my curiosity, so I researched it. It started off with a mystery shop here and there. Eventually, I made it a full-time venture. I was going to restaurants and movies and taking apartment tours and getting paid for it. The work-from-home mom blogs in the early 2010s came in clutch for me as a single woman with no kids who had no desire to stay in an office or a retail store all day.

Mystery shopping was fun. It was basically me checking off boxes while getting to have experiences with people and places that I may not have had otherwise. I visited the location, gathered the information the company wanted, went home, submitted my photos, receipts, or whatever other documentation was required, and I submitted the forms and questionnaires the company provided. Several days or up to several weeks later, I got my money.

One day, I came across an opportunity that wasn’t mystery shopping. It was a new company at the time that needed someone to go and take exterior photos of a nearby church. They needed 40-50 photos, and they would pay me $25 within two weeks. Seemed easy enough. I took the photos. I filled out a brief form. Altogether, it took less than an hour. A couple of weeks later, I had my money. I figured, “Surely there’s more work like this.” So I started researching.

I eventually landed in the world of occupancy inspections and field inspections. I combined mystery shopping, inspections, and product demos for a while, but that all changed when I went through some personal stuff in 2014 that I won’t go into now. I made a huge pivot that year that resulted in an even bigger pivot in early 2015 when I moved to a different state. I couldn’t quite find my footing in the mystery shopping and inspection world in the new place, which was how I ended up as a brand ambassador and merchandiser from 2015 to 2018. In 2021, I pivoted again and ended up back in my home state. Again, I couldn’t quite find my footing in the industry I was trying to grow in—by that time, it was transportation and delivery services—but still couldn’t quite find my footing; however, the door to inspections was wide open.

So why am I pursuing AI now?

I need change, and I need money. That’s as honest and straight-to-the-point as I can be right now. I could go deeper and be a little more philosophical about it, which I may do in the future, but in this very moment, I need it. Over the past five years, I’ve performed all types of inspections: occupancy check, letter delivery, mortgage inspections, residential insurance inspections, commercial insurance inspections, and draw inspections—you name it. There are great limitations to doing this full-time that I’m finally acknowledging.

I am an independent contractor. The money from inspections is unpredictable. It is a job that requires me to be physically present. I can hire subcontractors to do the field work for me or to schedule my appointments for me, but no matter whether I hire out people or do all the work myself, it is stressful. To add insult to injury, when I think about my most financially successful months, and I think about how many hours of driving, how many houses I had to tour, how many papers I printed, and how many more hours I spent at home labeling and resizing photos, calculating square footage, and writing my professional opinion, the math didn’t add up. For some inspectors in other markets, it does, but for me, not so much. I’m one of only a handful of inspectors in my entire state, and I still have to cover the entire state and beyond in order for me to make a living wage.

Specifically, why artificial intelligence? Why not cybersecurity or tech support?

Straight to the point: stress-testing AI chatbots is fun to me, and I like having a voice in things that may affect me.

Remember that talk about surveys? Well, surveys have always been a great way for me to earn a little extra gas money here and there. There are a couple of survey companies I’ve been registered with since college—woman pushing forty, here. Over the years, survey topics have changed as times and technology have changed. A few years ago, I received email invites to train AI for $15-$25 an hour. If I remember correctly, I received several from more than one company. I didn’t take them, though, because I thought I was being ethical even though I needed the money. Why would I take a gig training the very thing that might one day make me obsolete?

I stopped receiving those invites after a while, and I figured I missed the boat. Later, I would lament to a friend of mine that I should’ve taken those opportunities because AI is everywhere, and it isn’t going away any time soon. She agreed.

This past Christmas, I sat down with someone I would’ve never imagined I’d take advice from. Then again, a broken clock is right twice a day. Apparently, it was obvious that life had been kicking my ass (pardon my language), and I didn’t have the same spark that I had years ago. I feel like most people lose their spark as they age, but this person seems to really want to see mine again. It lit a fire under me.

Inspection work has been slow for the past two months, but rather than stress and start looking for jobs I don’t want, I figured now was as good a time as any to invest in myself and what I’m actually good at. Side note: I am a very spiritual person, and I believe that science and spirituality intersect at many different points. So there will be many times in the future when I infuse my philosophy or my knack for pattern-seeing that I picked up from reading tarot cards and animal totems with what I learn in my tech education. Just know that I make it my business to stay grounded no matter how fantastical my observations may be.

In January, I rebranded my tarot blog from The Gifted Reader to Sparkle Noir Tarot so that I could have a name that I felt fit me and my personality better. I designed a new logo and a new blog for it. I set up my Substack profile to be sort of a catchall for tarot readings, book reviews, and personal essays.

In February—and the month isn’t even over yet as I write this—I enrolled in the courses I mentioned in the first paragraph and am almost done with the one from Google Skills. I claimed The Tech Practitioner as my blog title. The reason for that name is just as spiritual as it is techie.

My bank account hasn’t caught up yet, but it is getting there.

My Learning Path and Hobbies

While my inspection queue is slowly but surely starting to fill up again, I have been actively pursuing those AI training gigs online. I take surveys with CloudResearchConnect and Prolific and have had the opportunity to dip my toe into the world of giving feedback on my experience with AI chatbots. Outlier has also given me the chance to play around with various AI models and get paid for it. This doesn’t even mention the months I’ve spent just playing around with Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot on my own to test their limitations and learn exactly how they work. All that time I spent being afraid of it, I really could have and should have spent learning it and what it can do. Besides, if all the sci-fi movies turn out to be true and the machines decide to rise up against humanity, somebody needs to know how to speak its language.

Speaking of languages, did I mention that I’ve been taking Spanish lessons since middle school and I currently have a more than 1,300-day streak on Duolingo? I’ve picked up a few words in Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Yoruba, and Igbo. I also started learning how to play chess a few months ago because I always wanted to learn as a child, but never took the time to do it until recently.

So many words. According to my metrics for this document, I’m at over 2,500 words after working on this for nearly two hours. I could write forever if left unbothered. However, we all have responsibilities outside of this personal saga. I needed to document this, though, so that it stands as a testament to my own survival skills as well as a brief demonstration of my own knowledge. Because if I don’t care enough about me to document myself, then who will?