What I learned from my Coding Journey

It has been a year since I started learning how to code. It's been a challenging and rewarding journey, I got stuck, nothing makes sense at first, cried for the reason that I cannot make it work, and I can't figure out how, I doubted myself if I can do it, but I'm glad I didn't give up and I learned a lot from a year. Not only technical stuff but also about personal development. If I hadn't started trying to code, I couldn't imagine how I would be right now or how much progress could I make.

For the first 6months of my learning journey, I wasn't able to spend most of my time learning, I just learn for hours, doing simple tasks, and did a bunch of things unrelated to coding which lead me to a little progress only. Then, the pandemic came, this was the time when anxiety hit me real hard, it felt like I didn't make any real progress with what I am trying to achieve. But it helped me to reflect on the things that I did in the past few months. And I realized that it is not aligned with my priority. So, I started to make a habit to become better and to track my progress.

Here are the lessons I learned along the way which helped me to become better and took me out of my comfort zone.

100days of Code

I committed to doing a 100days of code to make it a habit, I started to re-learn Javascript because when I delve into React, I noticed that I don't have a solid understanding of the basics. After that, I went back to React and finally started my personal project. At first, some things don't really make sense, but as I dig deeper and practice daily I notice that I am making a progress little by little. And that gave me the reason to start believing in myself again. I only need practice and hard work to get better. It made me believe that I just need to put in the time and extra effort, patience, and dedication to be able to see progress. And by forming a habit, it doesn't matter how many hours you spend, what matters is you keep showing up every day, spend as much as you can as long as you are learning and applying what you are learning. Small improvements each day will add up over time, and little did you know, you are getting better and better each day.

Coding is a lifelong journey

In the field of tech, it is constantly changing and growing. There is a lot to learn, and it is kind of exciting to me because there will always be something to learn. I'm really passionate about learning and I'm committed to this lifelong journey. I know it is a never-ending journey but it keeps me motivated each day.

Learning how to learn

When I started this journey, I wasn't really into self-education. But going back to school is not an option for me because of my financial situation so I didn't have a choice but to go into this route. As I am surfing the internet, I discovered that there's a self-taught developer out there and they made it happen. That gave me a boost of inspiration and motivation to learn how to code and fortunately, I have a mentor that can guide me along this journey.
At first, I wasn't able to pay attention to my learning style. And what I learned along the way is, you have to know your learning style to learn faster. Where do you learn the most? Is it by taking notes, by watching tutorials and code along with them, or by building your project? For me, it is the latter. I learn most when I am building something. Building some projects allowed me to understand how the concept works. It's the moment where I can encounter issues for the first time and solving them would be the best practice I had to learn.
I also observed that when I'm having a hard time solving a problem, sometimes, the solution comes out when I'm in the shower or walking, or when I'm washing the dishes. I always have those 'aha' moments. So, I recommend taking breaks when learning because you don't want to overwhelm yourself which can lead to burnout.

A problem has always a solution

In the world of programming, you will always solve a problem. Having to learn how to solve problems has helped me to become more logical and always looking for a better solution. The solution you get at first might not be the best but it doesn't stop there, you will always learn that there's a better solution. You just have to fully understand it and find the best solution to have better optimization for your applications. This attitude will be developed over time, I can say that I am still new to that, but I notice that I improved way more than I expected. And what I love about this is, it is also helping me throughout my day to day life. There are certain 'aha' moments, where I can finally say that " I am finally using my brain to understand things'. And I consider this as my small win because it is changing who I am. It's like it's changing me to the next level. And I can say that I am growing day by day, which excites me of who I can become if I continue to develop and enhance my problem-solving skill.

Consistency is key

Showing up every day is the key if you want to become a good developer. Being consistent is one thing that many of us struggle with. But along the journey, I develop this habit of coding every day, by merely wanting to work on my project and learn more is one thing that keeps me motivated to open my code editor and code. Sometimes, I only had a little bit of time to code due to personal errands and health issues but I also immersed myself in listening to a podcast when I cook or do the dishes. With that, it can help me to be knowledgeable about the concepts and the trends in technology.

This journey taught me a lot and I am grateful for it. Before I was a Medtech collecting blood from patients, evaluating urine, feces, and body fluids samples. I know nothing about how a web application works. And in a year, I learned how to build a simple website layout using HTML, give it color, and styles through CSS. And make it interactive by using JavaScript. And finally, I was able to build my simple budget app which I'm currently using to track our expenses and budget. 😉
This is what I love about coding, I love how ideas can turn into something that can be helpful in life...