Help with this sequence

[Joe]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me with the following sequence:

"One of the best decisions that I ever made was to teach myself how to program. It reignited the initial passion that I had for coding when I was younger and helped solidify my decision to pursue a career in software. "

In the first sentence, is my tense correct? Do I maybe need to change "to teach" to "teaching" and "I" to "I've"? In the second sentence, do I need to put "had had" instead of "had", and if so does anyone have a better looking alternative? Also, any better synonyms to use then solidify?

Thanks in advance,

Joe

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

"One of the best decisions that I ever made was to teach myself how to program. It reignited the initial passion that I had for coding when I was younger. It also and helped solidify my decision to pursue a career in software."

1. I would strike "initial" because it is unnecessary. You already mentioned "when I was younger".

2. You have two 'decisions' in two sentences. The 'decision' to teach yourself to program and the 'decision' to pursue a career in software. One of them is best reworded or left out. If you have had a career in software for a while you may just say that it solidified your career in software. If you have yet to have a career in software, you may have to rework that sentence to say that it "has caused you to pursue a career in software".

3. As for your first question, about the tense in the first sentence: I think it may be more correct to say "One of the best decisions I "have ever made"..." ... and it's "have made" because the decision is not on-going now. You made the decision once, and you're done making that decision.

4. I would not change "I" to "I've", as in I would not make a contraction if this is for a resume or other formal writing. If you change it make it "I have" rather than "I've".

5. Whether you use "to teach" or "teaching": Stick with "to teach".

Look at the two sentences:

a. the best decision was to teach myself to program

or

b. the best decision was teaching myself to program.

I prefer a. because the infinitive (to teach) indicates "purpose", where as the gerund "teaching" indicates an on-going action.

Does this answer your questions adequately?

Lene