“Friday Feels”-My Experience in Coding Bootcamp

My journey through Flatiron School’s Software Engineering Bootcamp has been an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. There have been lots of struggles learning a subject I was not familiar with yet alone 4 languages. Before I decided to pursue a career as a Software Engineer, I have had many majors during college, indecisive on what I wanted to do, none of them remotely related to coding. Here lies the beginning of my struggles.

Phase 1: Ruby

I started the Bootcamp with Ruby, with which I had a love and hate relationship. It may have been due to having no prior knowledge about Ruby or the long hiatus from studying anything, but I failed the first code challenge. Needless to say, I was pretty devastated, but in creating my first CLI application based on Pokemon, the feeling of devastation was replaced with a feeling of hope and a genuine appreciation for coding. I passed the first phase of the Bootcamp and felt optimistic about my chances of “survival” in this jungle.

Phase 2: Rails

It turns out, over the years of failure and not knowing where to go in life created a sense of defensive reflex towards experiencing NEW difficulties. In the next phase, Ruby on Rails nipped that on the bud, to say the least. I had no time to dwell on my emotions and kept reminding myself;

“If I don’t face this now and overcome it, I will never be able to overcome anything”.

After this change of mindset, I realized that with adequate effort, Phase 2 with Rails was definitely easier than starting fresh in Ruby. It was all a change in perspective and focus, that brought results. Besides topics in user authorization, cookies, and session, I was pretty solid in Rails. These topics I wasn’t fully understanding really did get back at me later on.

Phase 3: Javascript with HTML

Phase 3 started off well until I had food poisoning and had to leave my cohort until I was better. That was definitely unfortunate because, by end of Phase 1, I had already formed a sense of camaraderie with my fellow cohorts, indulging on off-hours game nights of Rocket League, Jackbox games, etc. I joined another cohort a little over two weeks after, and to my surprise, two other members of my “OG” cohort joined as well, which was definitely a relief. This trio formed a study group and worked night and day, which resulted in a better knowledge of Javascript over Ruby, and to be honest, I loved JS a lot more than Ruby. JS was definitely a handful though, considering it involves ALOT of code just to do anything. I aced the code challenge and finished the project with flying colors. Learning HTML along with JS was definitely the right move since the next phase was React, involving a lot of HTML-like syntax.

Phase 4: React

React was a tough nut to crack for me. In JS, everything I did, I could see clearly and know where to look for concentrated debugging. React, however, was confusing for me at first because everything was passed down as props and my lack of knowledge was holding me back from really understanding what was going on with anything. “What props does this component get?”, “How come these props didn’t pass down?”, and many more questions seeped their way even into my dreams. Ever have coding dreams? Well, I sure did and I’m not afraid to say it. In the end, I made it through React with a basic understanding of what was going on behind the lines.

Phase 5: Capstone Project

Phase 5 was 3 weeks of working on the final project or “Capstone Project” in Flatiron School. The end was near, but phase 5 began with difficulties. The way I learned React was using class methods and state, kind of considered legacy as time goes on since a lot of companies I hear are moving away from it. For the first week, I started off my project, “Premier Reviews”, using class methods, but realized its limitations for doing specific things I wanted to implement into my app. So, I took week 2 as a conversion and learning week, learning the function method using hooks, which definitely was a lot more flexible than class methods. Despite the struggles, each victory gave me that drive to continue working on my project, which gave me the realization that I really enjoyed coding, seeing as how I was averaging over 12 hours a day learning hooks or working on my project. For the first time, my laptop scolded me for being on the computer for too long…

I’ll take that as a compliment, my dude.

It felt great getting things to work, using things I’ve never used before, and just working on my project. It’s two days before graduation and presentations, and I’m already looking forward to working on my own project with no pre-arranged requirements. Well, projects are good and all, but I definitely need a job, so yes, I will focus on that as well.

On Job Searching(Thoughts before it happens)

I don’t know if it's embarrassing to say that it will be my first time “officially” job searching or going through an “official” interview for a tech company, in my 30 years alive on this planet, but there’s definitely a fear that overrides that “embarrassment”. I tell myself, its time to find a job, I need to provide for my family, make my family proud, meet friends confidently, and not have to pay for food with trembling arms. I am optimistic, that one of these days I will get a job and actually do something I enjoy. Well, until then, I have graduation and presentations in 2 days, and a whole lot of meditation to do.

“Woosahhhhh”