First-mile blog 
Tags: firstpost, flatiron
Published: 2020-12-20 21:26:08

Reminiscing 
	The only subject in high school that I didn’t have a problem with was Math. The reason for this was that it felt like training. Some light warming up, a bit of reading, one more set on ergometer, one more set in the gym, one more problem to solve…the more time you spend running, reading,  rowing, studying,  biking,... the better you will be, really keeps you on track.
 
Wrong track
	A few years later it’s time to go to college. Not knowing what I wanted to do I ended up hopping on the wrong “train”. No matter how long you ride it, all the stations you pass along seem wrong. Biology, Ecology, Chemistry were nice but nothing that I would get hung upon. To be perfectly honest, I only stayed for scholarships and dorms, and those were not given easily. You had to keep your grades high since the evaluation was every year.  It was my way to be independent in a “big” city. Looking back I wish I had exited the first station and hitchhiked back not caring what anybody would say. But that would mean to “get out of the box”.

Is it wrong if it feels right?
       Fast forward a few years and I am M.S. in the Faculty of Science with no clue what to do next. When the position of teaching assistant at my university came as an option I grabbed it with both hands. This was a very productive time. People around me were very open and helpful. Working in a group, project deadline, and daily work in the lab with students was challenging as much as rewarding. After two years I felt it was the right time to try myself in a new field.

“The Real” world
       Performance pressure was something that I encountered here for the first time since exams in College.  This time it was about money! Weekly and monthly statistics about team performance, scoreboard, gross/net were new tests to pass and ace! It was definitely out of my comfort zone at the time. For over 7 years in logistics in almost all positions in the company (but CEO, :) ) I witnessed job shifting toward new technologies. As time went by people had to learn and adapt to new software and less manual work. More and more companies were looking for software engineers to solve problems they had or to upgrade their business. 

Research
        Learning how new software is working, getting faster at it was part of the job but how it’s built was picking my brain. FreeCodeCamp was the first place I stumbled upon, then came Udemy and a lot of tutorials on YT. It felt nice learning new things but the sound of a squeaky brain was so annoying. It took me a while before I learned enough JS syntax to solve my first coding challenge and even more to build my first web app. It was a simple calculator converting running pace to projected finish time on a race. Nothing much but it’s a handy tool that I am still using before or after every run. Knowing how much better you become by running with a group, how someone can give you a push or that you can pull someone if he is slipping brought me to Flatiron.
  
“The right train”
         Now I am a Flatiron student on a software engineering course, learning about Ruby, discussing code with others, and feeling really good about this road we all started. The first station is just around the corner and this genuinely feels like the right train for me!