Photo byRobert CollinsonUnsplash

In the vast, sunny horizon of Arizona, where cacti stand tall like green giants and the Grand Canyon stretches wide like an open mouth yawning, a rare species of bright, young minds thrives. They are the coding kids of AZ, known as Code Wizards among the local burrowing owls and roadrunners. These Code Wizards could be found huddled over their glowing wizardry screens, their fingers dancing across the keyboard with the speed of a rattlesnake’s strike. Their eyes blaze brighter than the Phoenix sun as they breathe life into lines of code, creating magical universes, clever robots, or even the next hilarious cat video game. The leader of the pack is a quirky character named Billy ‘Binary’ Bighorn. Now, Billy wasn't your typical bighorn sheep. His horns didn't curve back; instead, they formed perfect circles, much like the zeros and ones he loved. Billy ‘Binary’ Bighorn, with his glasses perched precariously on his snout and a lovable nerdy laugh, was the coding genius of Arizona. Billy and his gang of Code Wizards would gather in their secret coding cave (which was actually Billy's spacious, air-conditioned basement) every weekend. You could hear their excited chatter echo around the cave as they created pixelated masterpieces or debugged their codes, their joy more infectious than a desert wildflower bloom. From the shimmering mirage of the Sonoran Desert to the snow-laden peaks of Flagstaff, the legend of Billy ‘Binary’ Bighorn and his Code Wizards echoes. With each keystroke, they keep proving that Arizona's coding kids are as hot and brilliant as their home state. Now, if only they could code themselves a solution to avoid those pesky cactus pricks!