Since I am the daughter of Greg and Kathy Brooks, two of the founders of Sub Sea Research, I often have people ask me if I plan on inheriting the company or some part of it someday, or if I work on the ship at all. This is the story of how I came to work for Sub Sea and what my goals are in relation to that.

When I was a young child of about six years old my family got a computer for the first time. I can remember it very well. It was an MS DOS computer and you had to enter commands in order to use the word processing program or to play games. My dad was tech-savvy and while it was his first computer too, he quickly learned everything he needed to know. He taught me the commands to access programs, and showed me all of the intricacies of each game. As is the case with many people from my generation, the computer soon became a real hobby of mine.

A few years later, we got a newer, better computer with Windows 95 on it. This computer was special to me because it had an internet connection. Of course, the signal was very slow and in order to get online you would have to tie up your phone line, but it was still exciting at the time. My dad had made a website for his company using a Netscape page-making program, and he taught me how to do this as well. At first I used the template that was provided for me, which allowed me to drag and drop pictures onto the websites I made and change the background and text color with a click of the mouse. I made a website called the Maine Kids Page. Around this time, my parents had started a business called the Mall of Maine. This was a website that advertised many local Maine businesses. My mom would find interested clients, and my dad would construct a webpage for them, which would be linked to the Mall of Maine hub. My page went up on this site, and later evolved into a Beanie Babies fansite (because I was young and they were all the rage back then!)

I grew more interested in web design, particularly HTML coding. In webpage template programs, there was little control. I wanted to learn how to do more complicated layouts and incorporate things like frames, drop-down menus and CSS style coding. I began visiting many other young designers’ websites and reading their HTML code. It became easy to pick out patterns, and with the help of my dad and some online resources I started coding my own websites.

Over the years, I have helped design pages for some local businesses and artists and have continued to use these skills to grow. While I am not a skilled laborer and so would not thrive on the ship, I am happy to use my abilities to help. In 2008, I started working for Sub Sea. I enjoy writing and working on the computer so it seemed like a good fit for me. I was able to help write press releases and work on the website. This year, we launched the Shiprex blog as a way to personify the company and get our stories out there to the world. It’s an interesting business, and so we want to share all of that intrigue as much as we can. My ultimate goal in writing this blog is to inspire others to take chances in their lives, and to share all the unusual and exciting things that have happened in mine and my family’s lives as a result of that risk-taking. I would also someday like to convert our stories into a book to memorialize Sub Sea and the adventures they have undertaken.