Bridget Jones’s Diary inspired
Coding diaries
Here I am, daring to share my story on medium, my learning journey and sharing that with the whole world. It feels like frying myself on a pan. I thought of doing this yesterday, I was at ALC4.0 meetup and one of the things that was pointed out in setting your foot in software development is talking about what you do.
Bridget Jones’s diary came up because the previous day (Friday evening) I was at Sarit and passed by Text Book Center and lo and behold they had a mini book sale and Bridget Jones was on the sale shelf and I perused it and fell for it, I’ll go back to buy the book. The book cover read something like, what a girl with a job would understand, and I’m a girl with a job, who's learning to code and who loves Bridget Jones’s diary. I have a board on trello that I keep track of what I learn, and I write comments every day about my learning experience. This is it…
July 27, 2019; 10.53pm (Day one)
While studying, I felt the urge to sleep, to pick up my phone and the easy way out to make myself stop coding. But then I still know that this won’t stop, I’m seeing the sacrifices I’ll have to make and I know taking the easy way won’t take me where I want to be.
I feel determined. I know if I set my mind completely into learning, I will surprise myself. That’s what kept me going today, I want to surprise myself, to see how far I can reach.
22.53pm
July 28, 2019; 9.59pm
Did 15min of coding today. It’s been a busy day, and I’m massively sleepy, just to explain how red-eyed my eyes are.
15min!
July 29, 2019; 10.46am
I just stumbled upon this; http://techinpink.com/2017/03/06/grace-gathoni-starting-out-and-tech-in-pink-mentorship/
The beginning of my learning programming,.
July 30, 2019; 9.29pm
I finished HTML!! Wohooo! I know, I know I’ve completed it a couple of times before and maybe that isn’t as much progress having learned it before and not done anything about.
I also did a little bit of learning in comp science basics. Reading is the boring part and I feel like I’m not moving, also I’m really pushing myself to learn. I still feel the urge to do something else like watch a vlog, haha. And at this point, I do know where that road leads and I want to make things better for myself and fam!
Also, I’m resistant to watching pluralsight videos, still yet to figure this…
I listened to codenewbie podcast, my first ever! A story of a nanny who became a developer and now I believe more that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. (I’ll write about this later)
Also, a thought that crossed my mind today,” Just how much do I want to change my life, how soon can I make that happen? How much do I want to become a developer?”
Happy about today’s wins! :)
July 31, 2019; 5.21pm
Did 20min of coding today.
Still got the inclinations of giving up. I had a thought that I may not go anywhere with my new commitment of learning that it would just be like the other trials but I think all I need to do is keep going, keep moving every day even if it’s just for a few minutes. Each day I will be asking myself the question; how much do I want this?
ALC is coming to a close and I haven’t made any progress in learning in that platform, the last meetup for phase one is this Saturday and I will attend it. I’m aware I may not be selected for the next phase and I guess that’s okay. I think I don’t have to rush towards completing my learning by a set deadline and end up having an overwhelmed experience considering my schedule. Which by the way looking at the number of other projects I have going on and as I am trickling that down to the most important things, I need not leave things all at once. (I officially have 2 jobs).That DOES NOT give me the leeway to slack at my own learning. No, it means I work towards my goal, this goal of doing meaningful, interesting work each day, with the tiny little steps that I take, also that doesn’t mean I’ll be learning on my own for the next 5 years. I need to set deadlines for myself, or a rather a timeline or a structure that I can work with. That’s one other thing to figure out.
Looking forward to ALC meetup!!!
August 1, 2019; 4.37pm
Helloooo!
Got this inspiring video from youtube on learning how to code:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2VlgeNVths
Key thing:
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!
Off to coding! will be back on the experience. Also started on CSS so continuing with that…
August, 2, 2019; 4.20pm
Distractions!
Seem to be ruling me now. Oh, the struggles…
I have also noticed its a matter of demanding of oneself to do the things that you want to achieve and I almost let this day pass without coding but then I don’t want to leave this space blank. Somehow, commenting here every day is making me accountable.
I was listening to Matt’s podcast today and the invited speaker was talking about how to be good at something you need to practice over and over and that you possibly won’t be good at it the first time,
I’ll probably edit this and write the exact words…
So all this learning makes sense.
A little every day,
ALC meetup is tomorrow!!!
August 3, 2019; 9:47pm
There are days like today, I know I will be too tired to code…
Attended ALC meetup today and I stayed until the end.
Sat at the back seat, I arrived a bit late, had to use the main gate.
I’ll write about it all tomorrow.
For today, ALC has given me more insights and I can’t wait to put what I got today into practice.
This learning won't be easy, that is one nothing I’m certain about and I’m ready to try.
Also, I think these entries will have a Bridget Jones’s Diary feel, I see it heading that way, more like coding diaries.
Yeah, that’s one of my ‘bulb’ moments at ALC.
Adios!
That’s it for the week! Share your comments, questions, and any helpful resources I could use :).
So far, my learning platform has been;
free code camp( https://www.freecodecamp.org/),
Andela Homestudy( https://homestudy.andela.com/) and
Pluralsight( https://www.pluralsight.com/).
Matt D’Avella’s podcast: https://mattdavella.com/podcast:Ep 028
