Azure/Dev/AI Journey and beyond!
Tags: beginners, codenewbie, programming, help
Published: 2022-06-17 18:11:07

I have been learning how to code, develop, program, tinker, etc... for about 3-maybe close to 4 years now. It all started out with a small intro class in during my IT college days. A class I very much enjoyed, but due to the demands of providing for a family and staying focused on problems at hand, it was a class I left alone for a while. I have spent 10 years in the Army as a 19k Armor crewman (I got trained on operating M1A2 tanks, though I got deployed 3 times as infantry, lol, oh well...). Went to Sullivan University for IT right after. After getting my associates, I got my first support position at a company called CompuCom. It was definitely a start point job, but I gained a lot of skills there especially the personal ones of dealing with grieved clients... Empathy , learn it!!

This was where I got all the "tips" of how I should excel in IT and what routes I should take. The quotes are not to say they were not valid, I just felt they were way to cookie cutter. "Get your certifications in x and then go here and here, work towards this..", "Stay up to date with this here.." so on and so on . That seemed like a huge deal to me, I was horrible at test taking. I Can hold a conversation all day on the topic, but see that question : " A client is looking for..." and I forget English real fast! 
Another thing was my background. I didn't have the luxury of growing up tinkering with computers much or even close to having that tech in my home. I got lucky with some parts from my Uncle who taught me to build my first computer and that was close to 2002. If it wasn't handed down or brought up in schools, I didn't know. I got more familiar with it as time change, accessibility to it grew, and people I had encountered in life. Out the Army, I wanted to get into tech, I just didn't know what I wanted exactly. I stuck with helping others, something I was attuned to anyways. So support was my main jam. But I did not really care for just dealing with issues all the time, I like to tinker and create! Being told to take certifications seemed dauting and I had a fairly good IT career without a single one. I did not get my first certification until I joined in a paid 'boot-camp' style job that lead me through a competitive and brutely 6-week Salesforce program where I gained my Developer and Administrator certs ( I love it and keep them up to date, but never really professionally used them yet!).

That was technically my first professional development job. They mimicked the development AGILE cycle, taught us Stand-ups, pressures of deadlines, code reviews, adapting to client needs and changes, basically the DevOps and routine of a development team. Overall, I did not care for the program, but the skills were learned. At that time, however, I REALLY did not like the place. You were to be rewarded a contract gig at the end of this stress test program. An award I earned not only through the training , but nailing my interview and whiteboard challenges. an Award stripped from me due to miscommunication, and incorrectly filed paperwork. I was sent back home, back to square one. I took it hard for some time. Then one day after playing Division 2 as my medication to heal, I thought, "Why havent I made a game?" I play them all the time, I understand there is a craft to it. I wasn't saying I could just jump in and do it. But, why do I still not know at least how I would go about it? That gave me a confidence boost that lead me down the path of learning Unity. Luckily, or unluckily as well, Covid struck (sorry for those affected, it is a horribly thing that is scrutinized by opinions) . With it came a lot of support from the digital communities and Unity was giving free training from their premium content. I consumed every bit of it. To back up a bit, I had been looking at other sources as well like https://www.freecodecamp.org web development track. But Unity stood out because it gave me a grounding I understood, and showed me the OOP concepts I was reading about more clearly. As I was learning, the internet was changing and so was everyone else. It was primetime to pick a hustle and move, and as I learn now, it was always primetime! I got more into wanting to do webapps and other apps outside of Unity, then changed into learning how to incorporate overall concepts into the tools I use. For example, calling a weather service API, but in Unity. Kind of like Enhancement smoking , "Have you ever seen a twenty-dollar bill ... on...?", but "Have you ever seen a weather service... on Unity?" . That headed the tutorial hell journey where I consumed so many tutorials, anything new , cool sounding, and easy. And that's why they call it Tutorial hell.. you become dependent on it, I couldn't do anything without someone telling me where to go and do it. So I knew I had a problem and wanted to get it fixed. To stop cold turkey was silly. I knew I had a list of tutorials I wanted to try. So instead, I skimmed the bacon, I don't eat pork anyways! 

I made myself start with my own project first. I could make a to-do list, but I have to start the scaffold. Then I would have to learn how to glue the pieces together . A to-do app is pretty simple, but the point I am trying to convey is this: 
If you find a tool you like, start there. Find a feature you want implemented. How does it work within your limitations aka 
 framework, language or tools? Google it (for real, I do all day even as a Microsoft fan!). Does it have an easy one stop solution? Nice! If not, try this, fail at that, learn this and become a pro ... eventually <--Key word!
And over time I stopped with tutorials, I begin to do what actual developers do. I did not know at the time, but yea I was. 

You have a tool, language, framework, learn how to use it to do what you need it to. Hope that others in the community have come to their own solutions as well to help you out later. 

That was the last part for my mind to connect the dots. I stopped with chasing the latest and greatest and picked something I liked! and learned to deal with it the positives and the negatives!

That got me to choosing Azure, and .NET. It was where I started with C#. The documentation that that confused me, abused me, and taught me so much. (Honestly great docs, I just had to learn how to use them!). Another incentive?  since the push to Web3 and other new technologies. Microsoft is learning and changing too! perfect match. .NET6, incorporated and made all the platforms, languages and tools I used easily accessible and easy. I was familiar and comfortable with MS from day 1 in IT support , Server 2012, every OS regardless of my feelings. And then Halo!, Xbox, recently Activision and Blizzard ( I love Diablo!). Match made in heaven and the best part yet? Im not even paid or affiliated with them.. yet!? lol 
So my motivation came there. Yours can come from the same journey, not the same events , but like every story and movie, heck, every Hero you start out weak. Lost maybe? do not know how to wield that power. Then you gain more and become almost dangerous. Now you got to hone these skills get a focus and practice it!

Now, telling everyone who reads this like all these moments happened back to back, would be wrong. This is a condensed version of weeks, and months. Frustration and tears... lots of tears... and a lot of triumphs! No matter what, keep going! find a focus that you like, it wont work if you do not really like it! Got to get dark with yourself, even if what you think it isn't considered "cool", do it! (as long as its morally right and accessible to all!) I have only been a professional developer for 3.5 months... so there is that ;)

but I plan on challenging myself here on out to reach my goal and give back to the community that helped me rise so that the next one can come up right behind me! 
I plan on doing that by taking a big introvert no, no and document these experiences on here. I have started a twitch stream https://twitch.tv/abm_dev where on WED nights I go through creating an app with a tool I like. Mainly in .NET and currently doing MAUI app with the Ninja Turtles! I just randomly started this. I wanted to challenge myself, and same time have an outlet that others can join in and get that "buddy" programming without the tension of being face to face , in fact I am going to be taking much of the embarrassment! I plan to release more focused tutorials on YouTube , but I want to avoid the common tutorial practices and currently just port shorten versions of the Twitch show there. 

I hope that within 30 days, I become proficient with MAUI, establish my DevOps on Azure, b and gain new friends through #Codeland and dev community. 

Long-term goal, I want inspire others! rid the world of the idea that most my peers have that you have to be on the streets to be cool !
Give communities the chance to grow in tech and stay up with the latest for  better job ops!
 
and personally, I want to work on some apps even games at Microsoft, 1 for being accessible to a person like me, that didn't have "Apple Pay" money growing up. 2, for Halo and Xbox, and now for literally making life easier with .NET!
Right now focusing on certifying in Azure, Dev, and AI!

My name is Auroiah Morgan, (a-roy-Ya) and I promise to continue to learn and grow, and water the soil for others around me to grow as well!

I am a web developer, a mentor, and now apparently a blogger and vlogger ....here to take my journey!