My mind was in the over-acheiver mode when I began Flatiron.
I had no background experience with programming. I had no idea the mental growth coding had to offer. I did not realize this was going to be a great challenge. I decided to learn code and I also decided that I was going to do this all through Flatiron School in a matter of five to six months. Right, no big deal. I definitely had a coding wake up call.
It’s now November and this was supposed to be around the time that I would finish the Full Stack Web Development course. Well guess what? I’m here still! Learning Ruby stretched my mind to it’s greatest potential. I had a huge confidence coming into code, I had excitement to grasp all the concepts and use them daily. In the matter of six months I was still learning Ruby. My confidence begin to dwindle and I became less ecstatic about coding.
I finished a great milestone in my learning to code journey so far. This milestone was a test of my knowledge, will power, confidence and grit to stay focused with code. This milestone was a project to build a Ruby CLI Gem. I wrote a post prior to this one regarding my finishing of that specific project. Yes I had finished building that project but I began a completely new adventure afterwards. I had received suggestions on how to expand my knowledge, refactor my code and again create a currently, working CLI Gem.
This was an expert suggestion. I was to tackle on that suggestion and at that moment I realized I had built my project too quickly and only using half my knowledge. It was almost as if this project consumed me and I had forgotten all the basics of Ruby. I developed the thought of being incompetent. My mind had me questioning what I had learned. I questioned my future life as a coder. I had immense self-doubt in learning this new language. After working on a project for two weeks, I spent the next three and a half weeks battling giving up learning to code and continuing learning to code. I spent a good amount of time not wanting to even code. You build this idea sometimes, that if the first time wasn’t right then you failed. Then you don’t acknowledge what you’ve learned, what you’ve actually accomplished, how far you’ve made your code work.
I was reminded constantly to be nice to yourself. Coding is immensly challenging! Coding is always going to be challenging. The only constant in coding is change in programming. I was completely taken aback and only focused on the aspect of not having a perfect, first project when in reality I built a CLI Gem, I made the code work, I knew the knowledge behind my code. I legitimately knew how to build this CLI gem. Instead I decided to let a suggestion of improvement take me out of focus. It’s difficult to see the good you’ve made when your main focus is the improvement you work on to get better. So I had to keep being nice to myself.
I was reminded that this coding adventure is my race, I need to make sure I run at my own pace. Alongside not being nice to myself I constantly compared myself among others. This is a mindset I am working on. I’m becoming better at reaching out to those ahead for help, instead of comparing. I’m becoming better at helping those behind me, for this helps me practice what I’m learning. I’m becoming more excited for those moving forward because in that I know I have great achievement to be made. So this is my somewhat, slow and steady race.
A third reminder. This stuck with me and fueled my drive to keep coding.
This is a great deal for me. In this milestone I now have twice the knowledge of code. I have great peers and instructors who encourage and push me forward. I have a greater mentality to continue coding. This project took a total of six weeks for me to accomplish. (I know it says about two months but some of that time I rarely tried coding) If you have read this far, know that I had daily struggles to be in front of the computer and code. I may have taken a greater time to reach this accomplishment but I’ve finally accomplished this project. So just know if I can do this, you can do this.
(those green dots fill me with joy!)
