Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
My background is as non-technical as it can be. I have been in school for a decade now. I have a Master’s degree in International Studies and foreign languages. I have never taken a Maths course in college either, which I now regret. For my entire life, I firmly believed that I am no good in sciences, as if there is an innate trait of character that makes me unfit to be good in STEM. I don’t disagree with the notion that some people excel in certain disciplines better than in others, but there is nothing stopping them from learning something different. I realized this way too late.
In this article, I want to talk about the journey of trying to become a programmer by studying on your own. A lot of the times I read stories of people that successfully changed careers by devoting a certain amount of time every day to learn to code. Eventually, they left their unfulfilling job and got hired for the dream jobs. What I want to share in this article is the hardships of going through the journey on your own. How many of you spend hours figuring out seemingly simple concepts? How many times do you question why you are doing this? And when you actually solve the problem, you have no clue how you solved it. I know I do! I want people who are in the same boat as me to feel that they are not alone, that others feel lost as well.
Back in summer 2017, when I was on a summer break from school, my boyfriend suggested I learn coding. At the time I did not have a clue what coding entailed or what you can create with it. It was just really cryptic. I signed up for Codecademy and slowly finished HTML, barely started CSS, and then quit. Due to a chain of events, I did not pick up coding for the next few months. Fast forward to October 2017, when I was unemployed and was not attending classes. I felt completely lost and scared about my future. It is then I decided to explore things that I was passionate once but buried them far away. That includes learning foreign languages, reading books, working out, etc. Somehow I ended up back on Codecademy, which lead me to Khan Academy. This time I got HTML and CSS down, started a little bit of JavaScript, but I got lost quick. Instead of giving up, I went on a research mission. I was scrolling through Reddit and stumbled upon a mention of Harvard’s CS50 course on EdX. I immediately jumped on it. Listened to an hour-long lecture and was completely hooked. Professor David Malan’s energy was contagious. I wanted the same excitement talking about my favorite subjects to a roomful of students. However, when it came to problem sets, I didn’t even know where to begin. After all, I did not know any programming language, and the course started with C. My next quest was to get a better foundation in the programming language logic.
After another long research, I found FreeCodeCamp. It greatly focused on JavaScript that I was not comfortable in either. You would think with that much jumping around, I would have given up. Actually, no. I was motivated than ever before. Eventually, I settled on learning Python, using a Georgia Tech course on EdX called “Introduction to Computing Using Python” with Professor David Joyner. Thus I spent the next 4 months learning about simple data types all the way to sorting algorithms. It would have taken me less than 4 months, but in the middle of that I received a Grow with Google Challenge Scholarships for Front End Development, and later became a recipient of Phase 2 scholarship for Front End Nanodegree on Udacity. I have also received a scholarship for Self-Driving Car Nanodegree on Udacity, and Google IT Support Award on Coursera. It is incredibly difficult though! I always tried to stay away from online classes in school because of how much independence and self-discipline is required to succeed.
My grand goal for this article was to give some impressive abstract advice, but I don’t really have any. If anything from what I wrote somehow resonates with you or consoles you, then I am happy. I might never become a programmer and coding might just stay my hobby forever, or I might find a software developer job in a big company and live my best life. What I do know, however, is that I get an immense pleasure from building websites, solving coding challenges, and progressing to more advanced topics. Coding gave me an appreciation for all the hard work that software developers put in the technology that we mindlessly use every day. It also broadened my mind and had me thinking about how I connect programming/technology with Area Studies. If anything I am more active now on campus networking with more people and student organizations. Find joy in what you are learning, and the rest will follow.
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