# about me

Hey, I'm Kadin DeMarche. Yeah, I'm still in high school, and I'm learning to code by doing what most people do – breaking things and frantically googling error messages around 2am. Nothing unusual there.

# what I'm up to

College apps are consuming most of my brain cycles right now – seriously, those 350-word limits are killing me. That's partly why I started this blog, because there's so much I can't fit in application boxes. Beyond that, I'm building web apps (most of which fail spectacularly, but hey, I'm learning!).

I'm also still figuring out how to balance being SPL (Senior Patrol Leader) of my Scout troop – which sounds all leadership-y but trust me, I'm about as organized as a bowl of spaghetti. Then there's mountain biking, AP Physics (challenging but oddly satisfying), and French honors (somehow both harder and more fun than Physics in completely different ways). Plus, I'm a certified procrastinator – it's practically my superpower.

Oh, and I've won some orienteering competitions with Scouts. Sounds impressive until you realize I can't walk around downtown without pulling out Google Maps every few minutes. The irony isn't lost on me.

# projects

MarkSite – This whole site runs on it. It's a static site generator for GitHub Pages that I built because Jekyll was driving me insane and I had French homework to avoid. No Ruby, no Go – just JavaScript. GitHub

Slate (RIP) – I tried building a free alternative to LinkedIn once. Turns out "free" for users means you pay (literally) as the developer. Learned a harsh lesson about infrastructure costs when my $120 hosting bill arrived. Wrote about that experience here if you're curious about financial reality checks.

CampusLink – Currently tinkering with a job-search platform for college students. At least I know what not to do now after Slate crashed and burned.

# why this exists

Look, college applications are brutal. 350 words per essay? Try explaining how you're SPL of your Scout troop, win orienteering competitions, ride mountain bikes competitively, survive AP Physics, ace French honors, AND somehow find time to build things that occasionally work. It's impossible to capture that complexity in form fields.

So this blog exists for everything that doesn't fit in application boxes. If you're reading this from an admissions office, thanks for going beyond the forms – I genuinely appreciate it.

# contact

kadin@kadin.dev
@Kadin-Demarche on GitHub

Last updated: December 2025 (probably, still bad at updating this)