ABOUT ME
“Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Fans of the Batman films will instantly recognize this line spoken by Bruce Wayne's father in Batman Begins. Over the years, this quote has become somewhat of a personal mantra of mine; it reminds me that regardless of the adversity I may face, I can persevere as long as I have strength to soldier on. My name is Brandon S. Hang and this is my story.
The elder son of refugees from the Vietnam War, I was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a place I still call home. I grew up as any typical child might have in the suburbs of Harrisburg: a handful of organized team sports, a sprinkling of video games, and a light dusting of mischief. However, it was in the 4th grade where I would be introduced to my love affair with music.
My first instrument was a King 606 trombone, a shiny, gold hunk of brass that was nearly as tall as I was! This behemoth was a struggle just to carry around school! I got over it though (eh, maybe not...) and everything cascaded from there. I picked up the saxophone in 6th grade followed by the piano in 7th grade. I even learned to play the drums in high school! I joined numerous pit orchestras, played in a number of regional and state bands, and even had my own jazz combo in high school.
After graduating from high school, I enrolled (for the first time) as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, originally for pharmacy. Well, things changed and I switched my major to biology with the intent of entering some sort of professional healthcare school afterwards. Throughout my years of study at Pitt, I enjoyed new hobbies, such as taekwondo and digital media creation, and rediscovered my love for playing tennis and basketball. I was even fortunate enough to travel to Jamaica with the Pitt Jazz Ensemble to play for underprivileged middle and high school students.
I graduated from Pitt in 2012 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and quickly earned a M.S. in Biology from Shippensburg University in 2013. This marked a major turning point in my life. During that time, I juggled different career paths along with unemployment. One minute, I was in quality control for a food manufacturing plant and the next I was a certified nursing assistant in a bid for physician assistant schools. In any case, I was never truly satisfied with how my story was unfolding and that I could not find the stability that I sought.
And so, I finally decided to return to school in 2015, to a place I knew I'd return to someday. That place is the University of Pittsburgh, a place where I can start over and get that second chance so few ever get. After all, the great philosopher Iroh once spoke, “Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not,” so why not make something of it? It wasn't long after I reentered school though—four hundred and seventy-four days, to be precise—that I left again, this time with a B.S. in Computer Science. A mere three days later, I began my career as a Software Developer!
So, what's next? I don't really know, I don't know the future. But I'm not here to tell you how this was going to end. I'm here to tell you how it's going to begin. My last few years have been truly blessed—I came out of musical retirement, I landed a position in a satisfying field, I reconnected with old friends, and made new lifelong ones. My name is Brandon S. Hang and this is my story, but the next chapters have yet to be written.