Introduction
2022 was the year I took learning web development seriously. It has been a very rough journey with many challenges and a couple of achievements. Here is a short retrospect of the highlights of my journey as a developer in 2022.
A Very Rough 2021
I got a scholarship to learn AI/Data Science with Python from Udacity in partnership with Black In Technology (BIT). Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the second phase of the program.
I started reading Python docs, E-books, watching Youtube videos and building lots of small projects to improve my knowledge of Python, because I was unable to afford a full course.
One of the challenges of being self-taught is that most times you don't know what to learn and the right time to learn what unless you have someone guiding you with a curriculum and a learning path, which I didn't have. So I didn't know much about git/GitHub or anything about version control when I started.
After spending about two months building a project (a mini DBMS with python), I encountered an office accident that claimed my laptop with everything in it (including all the projects I had been working on since I started learning Python).
So 2021 ended with me not having a single proof that I learned Python.
Starting Web Development
As a result of the devastation and depression I experienced as a result of losing both an opportunity to start a career and also losing my PC with all my hard work, in January 2022, I decided to learn any skill with a short learning curve so I can make money from it quickly and then use the money to sponsor my career in Data Science.
A friend advised me to go for web development since it's relatively easy, doesn't require high processing power, and I could also easily get freelance work within a few months of learning.
Fortunately, I met a friend who had a laptop to spare so he lent me to use it until I'm able to get mine. so I started learning web development, mostly from Youtube videos. By this time, I learned about GitHub, so I started uploading most of my projects to it.
Another Setback
After about three months of learning web development, (I spent over two months learning and practicing HTML/CSS), while I just started learning Javascript, I encountered a similar issue that affected my PC the previous year, (mostly because the person I was working with had poor regards for safety/orderliness, so I made it a priority to leave the place as soon as I could).
This time, even though all my projects were on GitHub (except the one I was working on then), the pain was almost worse than the previous one.
Sometimes, experiencing recurring setbacks while trying to pursue a goal can make you question your existence, especially if what you're pursuing is very basic and has been done by many others.
I spent almost three months recovering from the depression and thinking of a way forward.
A New Perspective
During this period, I came across two books that transformed my life. The first was Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Through this book, I learned that life does not have any meaning except that which you give it.
There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life... "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."
The second book was Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book taught me the importance of focusing on long-term systems instead of short-term goals. Instead of trying to learn web development in six months, focus on being a good web developer and then create systems that make it easy to stick to it.
The environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.
So I decided to surround myself with people that were doing the same thing I was doing.
Starting Again
I was able to buy a used laptop with the little money I was able to raise during this period coupled with some assistance from my elder brother. So I was back in the game. This time, I also relocated from the place I was working part-time to avoid the same accident happening again.
Joining NewDev
Based on what I read about the effect of the environment, I decided to join a community of like-minded developers who were doing the same thing I was doing, since my part-time job prevented me from finding those kinds of people, and was also proving to be a toxic environment based on the kinds of people around me.
I came across newdev, an online community of developers where I could share my challenges and also learn from the experiences of others. It proved to be very helpful (and still is) as it provided a channel to help me stay accountable and motivated.
Collaborating With Other Developers
The Failed Collaboration
I came across a tweet about Chingu, another online developers' community where you could collaborate with other developers to build a project. This was an opportunity for me to experience what it's like to work in a team of developers, even though there was no hierarchy which made it a bit hard to manage the team.
After submitting a solo project (as a requirement to join the program), I got a detailed review with very helpful constructive criticisms about the project I submitted, and also an entry into the six-week-long program. I was added to a four-member team of three developers and one UI/UX designer, to build any frontend project of our choice.
One thing I realized as a result of the program was that, if a person feels he has nothing to lose or gain by doing a particular thing, he most likely won't take it seriously.
One week into the program, we lost contact with one of the developers, leaving only three of us. After holding meetings and assigning tasks amongst the three of us, three weeks later (four weeks into the program), the second developer stopped attending meetings and responding to our messages without submitting his task (he was to build the layout of the project based on the designs the UI/UX designer had done, while I was supposed to work on the logic for the application). This became a serious issue for us considering that we now had two weeks left to complete a project that was scheduled to take five weeks, and to make matters worse, the designer had very little knowledge about coding, leaving the majority of the work on me. On my end, I was having some challenges with registration for the API I was supposed to use for the project.
After discussing with the moderator, he was willing to give us extra two weeks to complete our project, but I was so disappointed and frustrated I couldn't take it anymore. What I did, which I still regret was to abandon the project for a whole week without communicating with my partner.
High expectations create room for disappointment and frustration.
I never heard from my partner again even after sending him a couple of messages, (I guess he also got tired of the whole thing).
Other Collaborations
After the failed collaboration, I paired with another developer (still from Chingu) to build a simple project within one week. This time, we successfully built a cart page for an e-commerce website with React and SCSS. This marked the beginning of my journey in learning React.
Learning React
Initially, when I started learning React, it seemed so weird and counterintuitive that I couldn't understand the reason for all the hype about it. The first confusing part was that they called it a Javascript library (some prefer to call it a framework - whichever you prefer), meaning it's Javascript (or is supposed to be like Javascript), but it looked very different from the Javascript I knew (because of all the JSX, hooks and components stuff). As is usually the case in the first stage of learning anything, I was frustrated with recurring bugs in my code, and I almost gave up.
Fortunately, a friend (the same friend who advised me to go into web development) gave me a Udemy course on React & Firebase. This made the whole learning experience a lot easier by adding more structure and context to what I was learning. With time and practice, I came to understand and fall in love with React.
Writing Articles
I've always loved the idea of writing and everything that went with it. To me, it's an opportunity to express your feelings in a condensed manner, all while learning and sharing knowledge.
To me, the spirit of writing was like a wave - it comes and it goes. I was writing poems, short stories, journals, notes on books I read, etc. but I lacked consistency.
During the period I was getting used to React, I thought of a way to be more consistent with journaling. With a little nudge from a friend, I started technical writing, because the prospective benefits were two-fold: it provided a way for me to have a more in-depth understanding of what I was learning because of the extra research I have to put in before writing each article; and also provided another channel for me to make meaningful connections through my writings.
What I'm Grateful For
It might seem like I was bumping from one challenge to the next (it does feel so sometimes), but looking back now, I found happiness, purpose and passion in between all these challenges and that is one thing I'm grateful for.
There have been many times I had to stay awake throughout the night to code simply because of intermittent power supply, so any time there's electricity, you had to make the best use of it. All those sleepless nights have proven to pay off; even though I haven't achieved my goal of getting a tech job, I now look back and see the difference between what I knew then and what I know now.
Everything you have can be taken away from you, but no one can take away the experience and knowledge you have acquired.
I'm grateful for my family, especially my elder sister and brother, they have been very supportive (even though they can be very pesty sometimes - as it's common with siblings).
I'm also very grateful to have a friend like Jarvis. He's been nothing but a true friend in making my tech journey smoother and easier by providing helpful resources and advice at each stage of my journey.
Summary
Looking back now, these are some of the best advice I got in 2022:
It's not easy but it's worth it.