The first time I heard about Oracle was at an informal Oracle training program at university. Back then, my conception of Oracle was rather shallow. I thought that it was nothing more than just writing and executing a few SQL commands and didn’t realize how short-sighted I was.
After that, I didn’t touch Oracle until I entered the workplace. I had to engage in Oracle work because of my job, making me realize how interesting and fascinating it was. I also got to know more about Oracle by teaching myself. However, being in the position I was in, I also needed to learn things like Linux, AIX and VMWare ESX and to know something about hardware, like servers and storage. This reduced my time to learn Oracle, so I only had an incomplete understanding of it. Though I didn’t have much time to practice and delve deep, I still managed to get the Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) credential in 2015 based on what I had learned, bringing my study of Oracle into a new phase. I had a very confusing time after that. I wanted to study further, but I was afraid that I couldn’t keep up with the pace, because I had been teaching myself and didn’t have my own learning system. I was also taking my financial situation into account. Hesitating like that for about a year, I finally made up my mind to learn Oracle Certified Master (OCM) and to take the OCM exam.
I found an Oracle authorized Workforce Development Program (WDP) through the internet and using recommendations from my friends. At that point I just thought it was very cool and must have many talented people, but not much else. At the end of April, I was allowed to audit an Oracle class given by Teacher H. I remember that session was about performance tuning. To be honest, I had been a little worried that I couldn’t keep up with the teacher’s pace, because I didn’t have a good basic knowledge of Oracle. But Teacher H was good at making complicated things simple and getting the principles across. Every point was clearly delivered. I said this to many people: “I’ve attended quite a few Oracle classes, but Teacher H was the first one who could make things so clear.” I really wished that I had known about Teacher H earlier, because that way, I could have improved myself earlier. But it was not too late. Just as what is written in Still Life Days, "I can’t be part of your past, but I surely will not miss your future." I started working very hard, and I believed that I could learn so much from the marvelous Teacher H. I also became more confident in myself. As a result, without any hesitation, I registered for the training courses.
