Paper Crane Coding

It’s been another whirlwind couple of weeks at coding bootcamp, and it’s been tricky finding the time to sit down and put all of my new thoughts and experiences into another blog post. For one, I find I get so absorbed in my work that I often don’t notice the time passing, and before you know it, it’s bedtime! Other times, I am simply enjoying what I am doing so much that I don’t want to stop.

However, it’s still important to find a good life balance and taking the time to rest and process, and so I’m making sure to also still find the time to see my partner and friends, go to my kickboxing class, and do other creative pastimes (like making paper cranes!).

These past couple of weeks have been very interesting for me, because it’s the first time we have embarked on learning an actual programming language - JavaScript. For me personally, I always knew it would be challenging. I do not have a very mathematical brain, and I still vividly remember dreading the maths exams in school many years ago.

So, on a cold autumn Monday morning on the first week of the JavaScript module, I felt nervous as I sat down at my desk. Would I understand the material? Would I be able to keep up with the class? If I struggled to learn mathematical concepts as a knowledge hungry child, would I be able to learn now, as an adult?

However, I needn’t have worried. As soon as the teacher, Mark, started the class, I was immediately reassured. Clearly an expert in the field - no surprise there, after all, all of the teachers at DevelopMe_ are amazing! - Mark is also a brilliant and empathetic teacher who really sees each and every student, and clearly cares about their learning process. As the day went on, I felt really encouraged. And sure, it would be challenging at times - but the worries I’d had before the class started that morning, about not being able to learn, were all gone. I felt then that with hard work, I could still do it.

After all, we all have to start somewhere, right? You take the very first step, put one foot in front of the other...

...and you begin walking, taking it slowly, one step at a time...

...and slowly, but surely...

...you find yourself closer and closer to the top of the mountain.

I truly believe that with hard work you can eventually learn anything. And with hard work, I made a lot of the challenges work. And when you see the result of your hard work in front of you, and it does what it’s supposed to, and it’s bug free - you really feel like you are at the top of the mountain!

It’s been a couple of weeks since I started coding bootcamp now, and in just a few short weeks I have learned enough to plan, design and set up a whole website - and there is lots more learning ahead as we have just commenced learning JavaScript, with even more technologies in store. It’s incredible really, that as someone with virtually no experience of coding can learn so much in just a few weeks - a testament to the great teachers at DevelopMe_ who truly are experts in their fields.

Photo from Unsplash.com

Changing careers is a pretty big deal at any point in life, but leaving a safe job that I had been in for years to go back to studying and entering a whole new industry has been a whirlwind of emotions and experiences. From the nervous anticipation of the first day of “school”, to the elation of discovering I’m absolutely loving it, to the joy of befriending all the wonderful people in my cohort and being taught by amazing teachers - it’s been a fresh breath of air in my life.

The first two weeks of the bootcamp were all about the basics; HTML and CSS specifically. From the beginning we have learned at an incredible pace - when they said it was an intensive course they really meant it - it’s been hard work, but it’s also been incredibly rewarding. By the end of week one we could set up a basic website, and by the end of week two we could create a multi page website and style it using SASS.

The challenge, create a photographer’s portfolio. The website is responsive and adjusts to three different device sizes using media queries, has a sticky navigation bar that turns into a drop down menu for smaller screens, and has social media icons with links in the footer on each page. The website also includes a blog page, and a contact form.

The website was created from an existing design provided by the teacher. We then had roughly a week to complete it and get it as close to the original design as possible, while also being functional and responsive. 

The amazing thing is that the work didn’t feel like work at all. It was fun, and interesting, and I found myself still thinking about my website and tinkering with it in the evenings after class, playing around with flexbox and grids and testing how everything could be improved. 

It can be hard to switch off in the evenings when you are really enjoying and invested in what you are doing during the day. As we move on to more heavy materials - JavaScript! - I know I need to get better at having some downtime as well. After all, rest is a vital part of the learning process.

Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Kristin, and I am a complete coding newbie who has decided to make a big change in life and start a new career, having very recently taken the plunge into the world of tech and joined a coding bootcamp at DevelopMe_ in Bristol. So far, it’s been one of the best decisions in my life, and I absolutely can’t wait to see where it will lead me!

This blog is a space for my thoughts and musings along the way, as well as a way to document my journey and share it with anyone who might be interested. So thank you for stopping by, I hope you will enjoy the blog and join me on my new adventure into the world of code!