Completed Flatiron
It has been a wild trip but it has been 100% worth it. Attending the Flatiron online part-time coding program with a full time job was honestly tougher than I expected. With some adjustments to schedules and sacrificing some free time I found it to be very manageable.
We learned a lot going through this program. Thankfully I had a great mod instructor and made some very good friend to struggle with when learning all these new terms and coding languages. We started with a simple CLI, or command line interface, for our first mod project. It was VERY nerve-racking. I had never done anything like this before. Could I even do it at all? With dedication and making lots of errors I was able to pass mod 1.
Mod 2 we were to create an app using Sinatra. This was my first time handling anything having to do with routes but Sinatra came fairly easy for me. Mod 3 however was another story all together. We were meant to create an app using Ruby on Rails. Rails is a model–view–controller framework. I do not know why but Rails was exceptionally difficult for me to grasp at first. I had just gotten used to Sinatra so it was hard for me to adjust I guess. By then end though, I finally had that “ah ha!” moment. Rails is now my favorite to work with. Ruby is also just such a great language to work with.
Mod 4 implemented a ruby backend but then used a JavaScript frontend. JavaScript was a strange language at first. The way convention organizes with JavaScript was very confusing to me. With a LOT of study and pair programing with my fellow students I was able to figure out JavaScript and pass mod 4. Mod 5, the final mod. Very anxious having actually made it to the end of the program. Mod 5 introduces React-Redux. React is just JavaScript library for building user interfaces and UI components. Redux is a very cool State management tool. Extremely helpful. It allows you to Store state for an entire app in a single immutable object.
It is strange thinking back to when I first started this coding bootcamp. Having thoughts of doubt and fear. I pressed on and showed that I can do this. I can make changes I want. It take a while lot of work but it is worth it. I am eager to continue learning for about coding and to start applying for job opportunities.
