Building This Portfolio Site

I started this portfolio to create a central place for my resume, technical projects, and ongoing learning. Rather than only listing technologies on a resume, I wanted a site that could show how I build, troubleshoot, and document systems.

Why I Built It

My goal is to create a living technical portfolio that can grow over time. As I work on projects involving Active Directory, virtual machines, Docker, scripting, networking, and other IT topics, I want to document the process in a way that is useful both for myself and for potential employers.

Tools Used

• Next.js for the website framework
• VS Code for editing
• Git for version control
• GitHub for hosting the repository
• Vercel for deployment

What I Learned So Far

The first major concept I learned was file-based routing. In Next.js, folders inside the app directory become routes. For example, app/projects/page.tsx becomes the Projects page, and app/blog/page.tsx becomes the Blog page.

I also started practicing a real development workflow: edit files in VS Code, check changes with Git, commit updates with clear messages, push to GitHub, and let Vercel automatically deploy the site.

Next Steps

Next, I plan to keep improving the design, expand the Projects section, and document my Active Directory home lab in more detail. Over time, this site will become both a portfolio and a technical knowledge base.