The Certification I Never Took
In 2024 I set out to earn Security+. I never took the exam, and that redirection led me to AI.
In early 2024, I set out to earn the CompTIA Security+ certification. I wrote about it publicly. I made a study plan, shared my progress, and told anyone who'd listen that this was my next big step.
I never took the exam.
Foot on the gas
That whole season of my life, I had one rule: keep my foot on the gas. Learn as much as I can. Try as much as I can.
So I studied networks, threats, and access control, and some of my favorite writing came out of those months, including a 15-point cybersecurity blueprint for small business owners and a plain-English guide to malware. I opened an Etsy shop called Wrapping Love, making absolutely beautiful gift wrap. I started paying close attention to AI and how people were using it to produce and create. I looked back on my teaching career and wrote my book, Thrive. And my time living in Naples, Florida, soaking up a whole new environment, turned into PickleballFloridaUSA.com, a site I built with AI. Wrapping Love even found a second life: I repurposed it into the PickleballFloridaUSA store.
None of it felt connected at the time. It all felt like trying.
The redirection
Then something unexpected happened. I was recruited for a role I hadn't seen coming, with an organization I fell in love with. And it came with an opportunity bigger than any single certification: to focus on AI and AI adoption, and to bring my teaching back into it.
So I set the exam aside and went all in.
Same brain, different room
Going back to teaching, my audience looks a little different. The brain doesn't. People still learn by reading, seeing, hearing, and doing, and the best training gives them all of those. What's different with adults is the pressure around the learning. They're juggling life, balance, and deadlines, so it has to be relevant to their work, or it won't stick.
That's where every chapter of my career shows up. My retail days gave me a salesperson's instinct: you have to sell the "why" before anyone buys the "how." My marketing background taught me how to package a message. And my love for technology, through frameworks like SAMR, pushes me past using new tools to do old tasks, and toward using them to do things that weren't possible before. Being bold in environments that aren't always built for bold is the part I love most.
What I kept
Here's the thing about a redirection: you don't lose what you learned on the road you didn't finish. When I help people adopt AI tools, the first questions are often about security. What can I paste into this? Who can see it? Where does my data go? I can answer them because I studied for an exam I never sat for.
The lesson
If you're chasing a goal right now and life hands you a different door, it's okay to walk through it. Plans are tools, not promises. Keep your foot on the gas, and trust that the miles count, even the ones that seem to lead somewhere else.
Mine led me to AI. I'm right where I'm supposed to be.
Adapted from "My Journey into CompTIA's Security+ Certification" (Medium, February 25, 2024) and Part 2 (March 16, 2024). Updated October 2026.
Monique Hawkins helps small and midsize organizations evaluate technology, identify high-impact workflows, and create practical training programs that help employees confidently adopt new tools. Work with Monique →