Ohhh we're (over) halfway there
Tags: beginners, career, writing
Published: 2020-11-09 16:52:35

## What, halfway?

Ok, so I'm a little behind on this. We had two "mini" capstone projects essentially back-to-back and that didn't allow me to get to this. **This is going to be a long post since I'm catching up!**

### "Mini" Capstone Two

My pair partner was AMAZING, I couldn't have asked for a better one. I feel like as we get through the cohort, everyone keeps getting more laid back and collaborative. He kept me on my toes and made me really think about the "why" around doing certain things. 

In this project, this project we used the following new-for-us technologies:

* Spring JDBC
* PostGreSQL
* Integration Testing

We brought these together with Java 8 to create a Venue Management System. The purpose of this system was to check reservations for spaces within venues, allow a user to search for a space, and then make a reservation.

### "Mini" Capstone Three

This was the most recent one and it was A BLAST. Again, my partner was absolutely fantastic. She made sure I remembered the little details since I was starting to lose them. She was also very witty and kept things light when I maybe started to stress. 

The new-to-us technologies that we used in this project were:

* RestFUL APIs
* Spring Rest

The goal of this project was to make a Venmo mock app that allowed a user to send money to other users and request money from other users. Requests needed to be approved by the requestee. 

## Today

At this point we're a little past halfway. Today starts Week 9 and Module 4: Front-End Development. The last 8 weeks have been challenging but in the best sense of the word. I cannot put into words how much I've been able to learn and how much fun it really has been. 

I've been most excited for this module because I've received feedback from managers in the past that I have an "eye" or "natural ability" for UI/UX design. While all aspects of coding really do play on your creative abilities, this plays on visual creative abilities. 

The next few weeks will focus on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Then we have two weeks to knock out a final capstone project that brings together all of our new knowledge.

## Consistency

A concept that I've appreciated over the past several weeks has been that of consistency. Not only consistency in a schedule or a routine; but consistency in how one does things. I've found that I'm learning this stuff so much better than 10 years ago (this story to come in another post) because of how consistent the learning experience is: both for how I'm taking notes/studying and how the material is being presented to me. 

There is also an aspect of consistency with how I approach the problems presented to me. I've found that I tackle a lot of these problems the same way, and I think that is one of the reasons why things have become easier for me/I get through some things faster. 

This also makes me think of a saying my Taekwondo instructor says to us all the time: "Perfection does not exist. Instead of practice makes perfect, consider, consistent practice makes progress."

## Importance of Socializing

Amidst everything going on: election, pandemic, cohort; the last thing most people probably are thinking about is socializing. Something I've come to realize over the past several months is how much of an introvert I am not. I always thought I was, but I'm probably more of an extrovert with some introvert tendencies or an ambivert. With that said, I decided to take a small risk and have some of my cohort-mates over to my house for a socially-distanced barbecue.

It was a lot of fun. People seemed to enjoy getting out of the house (even the introverts), meet others from our class, and just take a break from everything going on. 

I'm definitely planning on having another hangout of some kind. Hopefully there will be pictures. I was able to snap this one of my dog and a friend's (mine's the little one).

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/aowbr6tais9unuj5qk8o.png)

## Side Project Status

I'm still working on the martial arts school program. I'm currently still data modeling the different entities/classes. Luckily I have a good friend who participated in a SQL bootcamp and is interested in database design, so he is going to help me make sure everything is accounted for. 

Once I wrap that up, I will start thinking about the different APIs needed for the two different systems consuming the data: the Student Portal and the Check-In System. 

Once I have that done I will design the front-end for both systems.

Updates to come on that and hopefully will have some things to show next time. I'm also considering writing about my "learning to code failure" next time as well.