How I began my journey into Webdev and some lessons that I learnt
Tags: webdev, webdesign, 100daysofcode, developer
Published: 2020-06-04 11:31:41

Let me start my first ever post here by introducing myself. I'm Manaswini. I am from Hyderabad, India. I recently created a brand new Portfolio website for myself and launched it onto the World Wide Web just a few hours ago. You can find it here https://manaswiniportfolio.netlify.app 
How did I get here? What made me go with Web development and eventually Web design? Read on to know more...
It would not be an exaggeration to say that I never thought I could come this far in Web development. Why? Because I never thought, even in my wildest dreams, that I could be a programmer or a developer or anything software-related. Why? Because I thought it was only for people with a solid technical background who dream code, eat code and drink code! All blame on the movies for portraying programmers as some kind of an alien species who input endless jargon into systems and lock themselves up in their rooms in front of their computers for eternity. Although I think the latter sentence is true. OK anyways now I know that anybody can code with a good amount of practice and dedication.
Did I catch you asking "OK I've heard all that before but how exactly did you get here? What was your journey exactly like?" Don't worry. I've got you covered! It all started in June 2019 when I started contemplating Freelancing to earn some quick bucks as a first year Engineering undergrad.Quickly googled 'Freelance' and a ton of buzz words got thrown at me. Content writing. Copy writing.**WEB DEVELOPMENT**.Sounds familiar. I had my friend tell me about it a few days ago. I browse further. I find an advertisement about the best Web development course on Udemy with a 95% discount!! I was in! 
That was how I started learning Web development in June 2019, learnt for about a week and forgot about its existence until April 2020 when I got back and officially began the 100 days of code challenge on Twitter to help me stay accountable on this journey. Thanks to the lock down, I now had plenty of time to give to this mysterious and scary sounding thing- Web development. 
Until I took this leap of faith, I always viewed myself as a novice who didn't understand computers or software or technology and just wasn't interested in the whole programming thing. But now I know better. OK enough about myself, let's actually dive into the lessons that I learnt. Shall we?

##What I have learnt so far

Right now I'm on Day 40 of the 100 days of code challenge and there's a pretty good number of things I've learnt till now. I'm not going to talk about any tech-related stuff here, just some general lessons that I learnt along the way.This is more like what I would tell myself 3 months ago when I still was completely new to this field.

1. Forget about all the bizarre myths you've heard about web development or programming in general and just get in there. If you are not sure whether tech is right for you, try checking out platforms like Free code camp or try youtube tutorials to get a hang of it and then decide. Do whatever, but take that first step. Even if you do not continue with a career in tech, you will still learn some valuable lessons.

2. One of the most valuable lessons you will learn is discipline and dedication. Because to be honest, I had never done anything close to this 100 days of code thing where I challenged myself to learn something completely new to me for a straight up 100 days.
 
3. Another important thing - Have something to fall back on. I mean get involved in a community where the participants will help you stay accountable. Like the Twitter dev community which is by far one of the best communities I've been a part of.

4. This brings me to the next,probably the most important thing of all. Do not get influenced by the response you get on Social media, twitter included. This was a major challenge I faced and keep facing. Seeing other's work receive a lot of recognition and my works getting lost in the dusty shelves of the internet was so heart breaking. But what helped me was clarifying the WHY. I started focusing on why I was on Twitter. It was not because I wanted followers or likes or comments or retweets. The main reason was to DOCUMENT MY 100 DAYS OF CODE JOURNEY.So why not focus on that?

5. Next up - Document your journey. Even the bad days. Twitter, Trello board, GitHub repos, Sticky notes...do what you like.But do not forget to document your journey. It will surely serve as an inspiration for others and most importantly to you. I'm 100% sure you will be proud of your self when you look at your tweets or repos and will be surprised by how far you've come.

6. Last but definitely not the least share your work with the world. Don't tuck your designs and ideas away and leave them to die in anonymity. Give them their much deserved space in this world. You will not regret it :)

So that was it! If you've come this far without getting lost in my sometimes incoherent story telling style, then give yourself a pat on the back. You very much deserve it! And thank you so much for keeping up with me till the end. I appreciate it. 
That's all from me today. Looking forward to learn more and progress in this 100 days of code journey and even beyond that. Join me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thisismanaswini to accompany me on this path.