Back to the Basics
I recently started my foray into the Flatiron Software Dev Bootcamp after a long hiatus from coding. Full disclosure is that I’ve been to a boot camp before but due to the hiatus, I had forgotten a lot of what I had learned before. The combination of this and the course being in Ruby, I feel like I’m starting at square one.
I can gladly say I am picking up a lot more information than my last boot camp considering my instructors and coaches are ensuring that I can explain even the terminology of my code. One of my biggest turn aways from job apps before was not knowing OOP enough. Lo and behold, that was the first thing they put us through!
In the couple weeks I’ve attended, I’ve learned how to build a class from the bottom up in Ruby without getting my class variables mixed up with my local variable. I even have started to understand how RegEx works, which was one of my biggest stumbling blocks before. I finally see how it identifies a pattern despite the fact that I couldn’t understand the pattern in its own syntax. I don’t know how many countless hours I spent trying to figure it out.
Learning Ruby is also a big plus and I am gaining a lot of experience growing as a developer by doing pairing exercises. It’s very humbling to watch someone else come up with a different solution to the same problem. Taking the back seat should be an opportunity to let the driver navigate and show you a new way…or run into their own roadblocks.
The most important thing now for me is maintaining balance while everything is going on, most especially self-care. My grandfather passed away this last weekend due to COVID-19, so needless to say I’m a little mentally scattered. Moving forward, I will make time for myself for walks or meditation. Here’s to keeping momentum in the face of adversity!
