Hey buddies, I’d love to take you on a stroll through my relatively new journey into tech. I’ve opted for the web development branch of it, frontend to be precise, and though I’m yet to get my feet on the ground or even get a paid gig. I’ve found coding to be a quite interesting and bittersweet experience. On the one hand, I’ve also found coding to be chronically addictive (anyone else feels this way?) and of cause, not without taking into account, the rigorously tasking and challenging venture that coding is, most notably, that constant “Figure It Out or Get Stuck” challenge it often poses. On the other hand, the immense burst of elation that comes after figuring out and fixing the problem, and that occasionally chastising spank one gives himself in the head for not being so smart in essence (any programmer would be familiar with this lol), makes it one immensely appealing, fulfilling, and mentally rewarding venture. 😌
I have a college degree in computer science; that’s how I got introduced to programming. The course was scheduled for two years but I had to do an extra year due to my nonchalant attitude towards studies. I failed to register my courses for a semester until it was past the deadline. I wrote the exams nevertheless but the results never came, and that meant I had to do them again. While in school, I learnt to write some basic lines of codes in Qbasic, Vbasic, C, C++, and Java, theoretically (on paper) haha. In hindsight, I think this contributed significantly to why programming didn’t appeal to me in the first place, even though I’d always wanted to be a computer scientist or engineer.
After graduation, I had somewhat lost interest but still went for Industrial Training (IT) regardless. After one year IT, I applied for another 2 years of study to complete my college degree but unfortunately I didn’t gain admission. I left for the UAE seeking greener pastures the following year, but things didn’t go as planned and I had to come back home during the pandemic.
During the later part of my sojourn, I reinitiated conversations with an high school crush and when I finally got back got to Naija, we had some serious discussions about life and what next. I discovered she’s a shrewd lady and one who had a keen sense of reasoning - this quickly accelerated my interest in her - and I asked her out, even though I wasn’t ready (financially) for a serious commitment. Interestingly, one of the prerequisites to get a “yes” was that I had to get into tech haha. She reminded me that I studied computer science in college and that was all the enchantment I needed.
My laptop wasn’t functioning at this point but she was quite persuasive. I eventually got it fixed and that was how my tech journey began. However, I’ve always had plans to get into tech at some point - I thought that would come to fruition after I’d travelled to Europe as it would’ve been a more conducive and convenient environment - but unfortunately my visa application got denied twice. This year, I’ve decided to devote all my time to coding as I’ve been too inconsistent before now. I never got the “yes” by the way, due to some other inhibiting factors though 🥹. However, if she hadn’t triggered my interest at that very point in time, and had I not taken that leap, I’d probably still be at the same spot.
Still early days, I’ve always had a profound admiration and passion for tech and one person that I’ve come to idolize is Elon Musk. I read his biography in a book titled “Elon Musk” by Ashlee Vance; an immensely intriguing and definitely one of the most inspiring books anyone could read. It made an indelible impression on me as it was filled with so many impactful lessons worthy of imbibing and living by. Whilst I was learning, an intermittent process by the way; yeah, I had my fair share of the inevitable moments of doubt & misery a newbie is confronted with while trying to discern the intricacies and complexity of tech, as is the case with most of the novel ventures of life. So there were days, weeks and even months I couldn’t summon enough motivation to double down especially during those times when other life hurdles presented themselves. In my case, one notable hurdle was during a period when I developed eye strain, my eyes began to sore intensely due to over-exposure to blue light as a result of long hours of sitting and staring at the monitor screen. This took a heavy toll on me, it became difficult to have a decent sleep and I suffered from lousy on again and off again headaches as well (this consequently caused fatigue). I often had to take some recurring breaks to recuperate and continue coding afterwards until it became so unbearable that I had to get a photochromic anti-blue light glasses. Coincidentally, I also got to realize that what school actually did was break down the knowledge and skills needed to become a programmer into snippets and I’d get to figure out how they’re all linked together when I started doing real world stuff. For this reason, I’ll advice anyone who can afford it to seize the chance.
I started learning to code sometime in the early part of 2021. I started with python but I was merely playing around with it without any strategy in place. As fate would have it, I came across an article on twitter, it was about the guidelines on how to become a software engineer. It recommended starting with web development while stating the plethora of career opportunities it entails. I began searching for materials on web development when I came across one on YouTube titled “HTML & CSS Tutorial” by Dani Krossing. I’ll recommend this for anyone looking to get into frontend web development, especially for those who tend to have better comprehension by watching videos rather than just reading like me. After finishing the course, I attempted the same course on freeCodeCamp and I took it in my stride, completing it within a couple of hours.
Still on twitter encounters, I reached out to a guy (my guardian angel 😇) who explain the nitty-gritty of web development to me - this played a key role in finding my niche - and on top of that, he paid for a domain to host my portfolio and kept checking up on me from time to time to assess my progress, I’ll forever be indebted to him for his benevolence. Now I’m proficient in HTML, CSS, SASS, Bootstrap, Git & GitHub, got some basic knowledge of python and actively learning JavaScript. I’ve opted for frontend because I’m a staunch lover of aesthetics and a big critic at the same time. This is where I’ll drop my pen for now. I hope someone finds this article worthwhile and going forward, I’ll be writing more about the tech stuff I’ve been learning thus far and those I’ll be learning subsequently, coupled with the challenges that accompany them. ✌🏽❤️✨
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