My Coding Journey
17 Jan 2024
My coding journey started seven years ago when I first started college at the age of twenty-two. I was eager to learn, not knowing what to expect and asking myself what I might be able to create in the future. Starting with Java, I struggled but got the basics down with the material and created a foundation for myself. However, halfway through after two years, I had to quit unexpectedly due to familial and financial reasons. My school career came to a halt and I took a break from coding entirely. I’ve been coding lightly since two years ago but still struggled in the same way that I used to back when I first started. The struggle kept me from staying motivated and it kept me from focusing on what I wanted to do with coding entirely.
Things changed with JavaScript. Coming into a new school and studying a new language in a new course focused on building projects and building myself up as a professional changed my view of coding entirely. It made me realize that coding doesn’t have to be overly complicated, it can just be made to be easier to use. This is what I first thought when starting JavaScript. If the language is simple to write and more accessible, it leaves more time to focus on projects and coding problems rather than the syntax itself. There’s no need to worry about specific syntax issues if it’s not even there to begin with and there’s no need to write multiple lines of code for one simple task. JavaScript alleviates those problems and it gives me more room for motivation rather than struggle.
In my current computer science course, we’re doing WODs (workout of the day) with short coding challenges under the pressure of a time limit. These workouts are challenging all that I have learned so far and I feel like I’m giving it all that I’ve got. They are difficult with the pressure of time and I’m not correctly solving these problems on the first try, however, it’s giving me more motivation to improve, and with the simplicity of JavaScript, there’s less struggle and more eagerness to try the workouts again.