As this year is coming to an end i feel the need to write about how challenging and eye opening this year has been. It's normal for people to feel different and nostalgic at the end of a year, i've been there many times but that's not really the case this particular time, i feel excited and motivated to see what a new year brings, but let's start from the beginning.
Cue chorus and intro music
The Beginning
The story that has led me to this moment is quite a funny one, i had just finished taking a Bioethic's course from HarvardX on November 2020 when i came across a 'CS50 For Lawyers' course being suggested next and i remember thinking (in all my hardheaded self) "pls how hard can it be for lawyers to have their own designated course" so i just googled 'how to learn to code', i had practiced Law for a year and the pandemic was just starting so 'it'll be a fun hobby'. Little did i know!
I came into tech with zero knowledge, i'm not even kidding! I didn't know 'basic' things and terminology you're expected to when you're in tech and would often find myself googling or translating terms that are commonly thrown around, what even is GitHub, so i decided to learn from the ground up.
I wasn't all new to HTML and CSS thanks to my Tumblr years but as i learned it again it felt like a breath of fresh air. I would wake up excited and looking forward to my time off so i could learn more, and it came the time to learn my first language JavaScript.
I joined tech twitter in the mist of my very steep learning curve with JavaScript this past February 2021. Not yet knowing what this path would bring but aware that i wanted to see how it'll go, to do my best with no regrets. I'm lucky i've connected with wonderful people doing 100DaysOfCode but still felt like i was way behind my peers, specially being self-taught from a completely different background, law.
That's where most of the imposter syndrome kicked in, self-taught! Who would vouch for my knowledge? It's not like i had a bootcamp behind me or how are employers going to know i've been actively and progressively taking the necessary steps to become a valuable employee? It's not like they've been following my journey... That's when i saw a tweet that felt like a direct sign from the universe:
Best thing you can do is document your journey.
Writing and reading always came easy, call it law background perks, so i decided to make a blog!
Current times
I've learned many things ever since, looking back i'm surprised how easy time passes by. I've completed three rounds of 100Days, CS50, have written many blog posts, earned certifications, made many more projects, connected with amazing people eager to learn too and i'm able to look back on how much i've grown.
I applied to my first Junior Developer position this past week and if you were to tell me i'd be doing this when i started i wouldn't have believed you. I'm able to look at the skills required and say 'yea that's me!'
I'd often wonder what would i bring into this, i'm just a beginner' and now people reach out saying how my blogs have helped them understand difficult concepts or helped their projects. There's always something you can bring to the table. For me is making difficult concepts easy to understand, the same way i would've wanted them to be explained to me when i just started.
Future
I still have a long way to go and that's what excites me the most. There's a lot to learn, skills that need to be perfected, projects to be done and i'm more than willing to do so.
There's no way to know where you'd be a year from now, but the least i can do is to take those daily steps to become that best version of me. Hopefully future Yuri will look back to this and feel the same way i do, proud of how confident i've become in my decisions because they come from the skills i've earned. (Hopefully she's employed too ahahah)
I won't write much in this section because the future truly is unknown, last year around this time i was just taking in what i thought was a new hobby and now i'm applying for junior positions hahaha. Life has a funny way of working out.
So If you're to take something from this article with you let it be to just show up, little by little, be consistent. There's nothing that gets worse due to practice, my friend. You got this.
Happy new year my friends!! Here's to a new one filled with opportunities and challenges <3
- With Love, Yuri (:
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