The journey of learning code while being a parent.
Tags: programming, webdev, beginners, speaking
Published: 2021-07-09 23:58:57

#My Journey

This year has been filled with surprises some good some bad. Throughout my life I have always drifted through the journey called life, nothing interested me nor did I get excited for much. I was always trying different things picking up new hobbies but never really found the satisfaction I craved. In the year 2021 everything changed, as I stumbled across some videos of some software engineers I was super interested in how it all works. Ever since I was a little kid I always enjoyed playing video games and even wanted to be a game developer but as a kid, everyone always told me that's not where the "money" is at. So through my years, nothing else felt like it mattered. 

After seeing those coding videos it felt like a spark light up, I started searching for courses on Udemy and looked up what languages are the best and most used and started with simple HTML and CSS. After watching some videos and building my first site I was hooked. "This," I told myself, "This is what I want to do" the constant rush of learning something new and the thoughts of what to build next was the one thing that I loved from coding.

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##Now what?

All this excitement rushed to my head and I was planning so far ahead! But then... I started feeling overwhelmed when searching for how I can land a software engineer job. While stumbling across all of these different ways such as having projects with a good understanding of authentication, extracting data from Api's, and more I thought how am I possibly gonna land a job with the simple knowledge of HTML, and CSS.

<img width="100%" style="width:100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/TJawtKM6OCKkvwCIqX/giphy.gif">



##Discovering FlatIron and the news of my incoming baby.

This is when I discovered FlatIron school. This would have been the biggest commitment of my life spending this type of money on school would have been a first, but I decided to do it since I’m the type to need something organized and scheduled for me to have the best learning experience. On top of this, I received the news that I was going to be a father. Receiving that news and signing up for school brought a mix of emotions such as fear, happiness, and excitement at the same time. I had to get my mind right for me to excel in school as well as take care of my home needs. 

##My journey at FlatIron.

My journey at FlatIron had to be one of the best experiences of my life. The cohort I joined 020121 had to be one of the best out there. Such genuine amazing students and teachers ready to learn and teach. Making friends and learning how to code and having fun while doing it taught me that your job doesn't have to be something you hate. It got tough yes, did I feel like quitting yes, but I stuck through it and as of July 2021 I am a FlatIron graduate. This wasn't easy though having to wake up earlier due to having a baby to take care of her needs as well as my wife's was challenging. Learning and being deprived of sleep and not being in the best-rested state was also a challenge but I had to understand that I had to work harder than anyone else to come out successful Now I'm on a job searching journey looking into sharpening my skills as a developer and making an impact through code.

##Fin.

Now, what's the point of sharing this story? This is a way to share not only to someone who needs motivation but also to someone trying to start software engineering, I want people to understand no matter what living conditions you are facing hard work will always beat talent 100% of the time.

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