I am completely new here even though I used many many resources from freeCodeCamp during last few month of learning programming. I just never had the courage to actually post something in here.
I started learning programming probably around 8 months ago. It’s a rocky road with me. My boyfriend who is a programmer, inspired me for career change and after consideration I decided to change my life.
All my life/career decisions until now were led, in a way, by emotions and passion.
Change is hard. I know that there are or were multiple discussions about it here but recently I just feel very lonely in my journey and I just wanted to share my thoughts. I hope that is okay with you all.
I don’t like programming. I don’t have passion for it. But I truly want to do it in life because it would give me some financial freedom and flexibility. I am an introvert that has a decent social skills, with creative mind and a bit romantic nature.
So programming is like a mountain for me. I climb it everyday and everyday feels like it’s not enough. Everyday I want to understand logic behind it and how things actually work. Persistence in here is essential.
But my mind forgets things quickly. I get anxious. And at points depressed.
What was your approach?
Did you like it straight away?
What was most difficult?
Programming is a hard career if you like coding - it’s miserable if you don’t. It’s hours and hours of being frustrated until you get it to work and move on to the next trouble.
I think most people feel this way because learning to code has a big learning curve to it.
When I was first learning, I struggled with a lot of things.
Most people do.
8 months is still pretty new.
It will just take time to start to get comfortable with things.
I spent a year and a half learning and growing before I started my first dev job.
And even still I have so many things left to learn.
But with continued practice and a strong community behind me I can see the progression and I am getting stronger each day.
Take it slow.
Learn the fundamentals.
Build small projects along the way to help you solidfy the concepts.
Also don’t code alone.
Join a community.
You have already taken the first step in community by making this post.
Surround yourself with other people on this journey and you will be able to grow and learn together.
Some parts I did.
But alot of it I didn’t because I didn’t understand most of it.
For example, when I was learning React for the first time, I hated it.
I couldn’t understand it and didn’t understand what the big deal was over this library.
But after months of learning and slowly making progress, it started to click.
Now I love it and mainly use it on the job.
There were plenty of times where I was honestly try to solve a problem or finish a project but nothing was working.
One of the projects that I really struggled with cash register in the js curriculum.
I spend days trying everything and reading through forum posts but could get.
I must have rewritten it dozens of times before I finally figured it out.
But when I did it felt so good.
There will be times when you are struggle to solve a problem.
But persistence is key because eventually you will get it.
Hello @izabelaoska, welcome to the freeCodeCamp forums!
First, thanks for sharing your thoughts. The community here is built for these sorts of situations. So know you aren’t alone in your journey
I believe a lot of programmers/developers are introverted to a degree, as it’s primarily an individual task. Sure building most things require teams of people, but each person is usually isolated when it comes to the actual act of programming. Just you and the machine.
The machine is not a person, it doesn’t judge or deem you, or have any opinions. It is made purely of logic. Your code either works or it doesn’t. Because of that it’s understandable regardless of how difficult things get. This doesn’t mean everything is straight forward, oh no problems can get complicated. But the dynamic between you, the machine, and your code nothing more than 1s and 0s at the end of the day.
I actually use the analogy that learning programming is like climbing a mountain. Your completely right that it’s persistence that is the key to getting to the top. Where and how you fuel the climb doesn’t have to be a pure passion for “climbing big mountains”. You could try to find some enjoyment in some aspects of “the climb”.
Luckily programming can be a tool used for any number of more inspiring tasks. Finding some common ground could help you find some sort of passion to learn programming itself.
Ultimately you could be a programmer and have no passion for the work itself. However, I’d hope you find some overlap between the work you do and something to find some enjoyment indirectly.
I have a really terrible memory. It has always been one of my biggest drawbacks.
I’d have to study twice as hard to remember even basic things. I’ve found methods to work around this however. In regards to programming, practice can help you remember things more easily by getting them into muscle memory. You can also leverage tools to help, knowing how to “google it” can go great lengths to get what you need to know about.
Ultimately the internet has all the answers to all the questions you could have, the only problem is being able to ask the right questions to get what you want.
I’ve always liked problem solving, puzzles and building things. This doesn’t mean things are flowers and roses all the time. A large majority of the time is actually just plain problem solving.
I believe the thing that keeps me engaged is simply I’m competitive. If something doesn’t work, I believe the only thing between me and the solution is time and grit. Banging my head against the problem is a humbling, but sometimes devastating experience. However, there are always more challenges, or going back to my earlier analogy “more mountain to climb”.
At the end of the day the task is work. No matter how competitive I am, it takes time and energy.
To say nothing was truly difficult would be a lie, but at the same time very little comes easy. I see a lot of “accomplishments” as part of an overall never ending “grind”.
Everyone’s path is different, but the goal could be the same. Programming is a well paying job because it isn’t easy, and takes time to get good at. Why or how you fuel your “march up the mountain” can come in different forms, but ultimately it only matters that you keep up the climb and you will reach your goals.
As I always say, you only need 3 things to become a programmer:
time
grit
an internet connection
If you can find a source of “grit”, the time to keep learning and building, and keep paying your internet bill you can do this.
Well… It would help if you were good at math or time can be challenging because coding is math but in a different form. You can always start out and ease your way in getting a teacher or learn python as soon as you get done with one language you will be fast to understand almost all others.
