Picking things back up again
1 Oct 2019
I’ve been very much away the last couple of months. Away from dev things at the very least. I’m not sure what it was. Being away from other devs due to my lack of transportation that kept me from going to meetups? That’s probably a big chunk of it for sure. Plus, I got a new job. One that uses Postgres SQL! Yay! Using things I learned from my boot camp on the job! But a lot of my day’s mental energy went to learning knew things for my new position.
Being able to use what I’ve learned actually on the job has been so fulfilling. I had kinda given up on getting a dev/ish job. I was content at my company and don't want to leave. So, I thought eh, I’ll pick up freelancing or something. That didn't really pan out. No bites. Then again I wasn't willing to undersell myself either. No way. Nor was my heart really in it. If I’m going to work on things after my regular day job I want it to be things for me.
As the title says, though, I’m picking things back up again! Why coding? Why now? Well as mentioned before, I actually use some coding at work, but I also have been able to talk more to developers in my part of the company. It has been quite refreshing! I’m not in any sort of mentee relationship at the moment, but just being able to talk to a developer more regularly has sparked my passion to try coding again.
Now here’s the tricky part, I think: do I just jump in and start building stuff? For inspiration, I am picking up the developer podcasts I used to listen to, Syntax specifically, but I’ve also started listening to the Ladybug podcast, which I am thoroughly enjoying so far. Some things might be a little over my head, but then I can always pause the podcast and look up whatever concept, framework, piece of software, etc that they are talking about that episode. Even if I don't end up using it, I believe that I'm still better off now that I've heard about the thing and know a little bit about it.
Also for inspiration, I look to those that have transformed their lives with learning how to code. They were stuck in a job with nowhere to go then they learned coding and just that opened so many doors for them. Coding is so versatile that I think most people can learn it and apply it to their passion. Like making beautiful things? Be a web designer or a UI/UX designer. Like to help those in need? Help make you local business websites more accessible or help build a website for your local non-profit. You can program cool and useful apps and put them out to the world. The possibilities with coding are truly endless.
That they are. But sometimes, for me, that can be pretty overwhelming. That’s when I get stuck. Analysis paralysis. That's the point where I usually go back to tutorials and get sucked back into that loop. I think to myself. How am I going to get myself out of this tutorial cycle. Right now I really don’t know, but I’m hoping this blog will help me. Help me to push myself forward and to inspire me to keep going as I make a record of where I’ve come from.