Something happened to me today.
I can't explain it; nor understand how or why it happened today, but I will try my best to explain it. You see I never do this I don't open my laptop and write insightful things for others to read, learn, and hopefully take something with them that will inspire them to want to learn to program. Im not going to lecture you about "The Real Reason Why Everyone Should Learn to Code", I think that nail has been hammered too many times; No, im here to tell you that today I spent four hours programming and I finally hit the “the zone”.
My first time learning and seeing code.
2012 was the first I had ever seen code. my first semester in college-I attempted to learn C; "The One Programming Language to Rule Them All", At least that is how my professor explained it to the entire class. It was terrible! I couldn't understand pointers, variables, or why functions did what they did. I thought to myself " this is just too hard" and not for me. After the class, a friend advised me to start with python, "It's much easier", he said. I wish I could tell you that it was great! I learn to code; THE END (cue closing credits music), but that was not the end. Eight years have gone by and I still don't understand code. I practice when I find the time, read the articles here and there, find a book and practice, but the outcome is the same. I'm frustrated, I feel stupid, and I give up.
Today was different.
However, today was different. I woke, sat-up on the side of my bed, turn over and look at my wife sleeping next to my daughter and the first thought in my mind is " I need to learn to code!" I grab my laptop, got in my car, and arrive at my local library. The first thing I did was search for the best programming languages to learn in 2019. I can't explain why Go stood out to me, but it did. Next, I really needed to find a way to commit, so I decided to get the official The Go Programming Language / Edition 1 from my local bookstore(🤦yes, bookstores are still open for business) and a large cup of coffee and back to the library I went.
OMG I get it!
Hours have gone by but I sat in my chair and didn't stop reading and practicing code. I don't when exactly the moment happen, but I finally knew what I was doing. Errors would appear on my terminal and I could read them and fix my problems. I started to feel my confidence going up, I looked around to see if anyone was seeing the magic surrounding me. It was an amazing feeling and I was hungry for more. I decide to enroll in an online program to teach me what I been missing. I heard good things about Treehouse and they fit my budget. so far its been 15 hours and im still feel amazing that coding is finally making sence
Why the rant you noob!
So why did I decide to write this? Honestly, I just wanted to share how happy I been feeling all day. No one in my family or my circle of friends understands coding or computer science lingo or cares about tech the way I do. I just wanted to share that I finally see why programming is rewarding and why so many people love it.
Please
Please feel free to provide me with feedback. I never share my thoughts like this online and I think I would like to try it again, but with better quality. Thanks for reading 😄
Top comments (3)
That was me for the longest time. I hit so many brick walls. I switched to Java, and between it being statically typed (which maybe helped me grasp things a bit better) and the Udemy instructor Tim Buchalca, who loads his courses up with so many coding exercises, things are clicking so fast now.
That's awesome news!
I had a similar experience. I tried learning C++ in highschool and it was a bit too much. Fast forward to me learning javascript, suddenly things start clicking.