I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've last posted. Trust me...I know. I started studying JavaScript two weeks ago and it had originally sent me reeling. I was fresh off of finishing up HTML and CSS. I was really starting to feel confident in my choice to become a programmer. Full Stack Developer? Just around the Riverbend.
...
And then I started studying JavaScript.
It. Is. Hard.
At first, I felt pretty good. Everything made sense. Alerts? Got it, that's easy. Variables? Wow, how useful those are. Arrays and Objects? I love storage containers in real-life, so of course I love their digital equivalent. I was devouring all of this new information. But then...it started to get a bit fuzzy. Suddenly, I was getting tripped up coding things like....a function that can help edit, store, or remove data from objects. Writing switch statements was making my brain shut down. I was reading the same lines of text over and over and they weren't making sense. The victories were coming fewer and further between. I was disheartened AND confused.
So I took a few days off to breathe. I was overworking myself. Unlike a computer, I can't run continuously. And that's not even a great analogy, because even my laptop needs to be shut down every now and then. I took a few days off and told myself to stop rushing. HTML and CSS came so naturally to me in comparison, that it was very easy to get through large chunks of material in one day. With JavaScript, I call it a win if I get through just a few pages of the book I'm reading. It's A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript by Mark Meyers, by the way. I am also employed full-time as a teacher. My students were gone for winter vacation, and I had at least 8 hours a day to dedicate to studying. Now I'm lucky if I can get an hour or two in here or there.
Since getting this book from one of my Programming Buddies, I can study a few chapters a day, while taking notes and completing the included exercises. That is enough to make me feel like I am constantly moving forward. I can review the things I've previously learned, and having a new source material allows me to make connections as well as learning new techniques that other material may not have shared. For example, I had already learned how to code prompts, but today I learned you can code a default answer very easily. It's not as large a feeling of accomplishment as coding an entire webpage from scratch with HTML and CSS; but, learning more about JavaScript at its root will give me a stronger foundation to stand on when I get to coding some more complex things.
All in all, I'm still really excited about this career change. My brain is thinking more analytically about how sites work. I pretty much hit F12 on every website I go to so I can try to see into the brains of the coders. I'm always making a mental note of things I like on a website as well as things I don't like and how I would do it instead. I'm not there yet, but I do feel like I'm starting to think more like a coder...and it feels wonderful. I can't wait to be more comfortable with this...but at the same time, I can.
-Elle
...
And then I started studying JavaScript.
It. Is. Hard.
At first, I felt pretty good. Everything made sense. Alerts? Got it, that's easy. Variables? Wow, how useful those are. Arrays and Objects? I love storage containers in real-life, so of course I love their digital equivalent. I was devouring all of this new information. But then...it started to get a bit fuzzy. Suddenly, I was getting tripped up coding things like....a function that can help edit, store, or remove data from objects. Writing switch statements was making my brain shut down. I was reading the same lines of text over and over and they weren't making sense. The victories were coming fewer and further between. I was disheartened AND confused.
So I took a few days off to breathe. I was overworking myself. Unlike a computer, I can't run continuously. And that's not even a great analogy, because even my laptop needs to be shut down every now and then. I took a few days off and told myself to stop rushing. HTML and CSS came so naturally to me in comparison, that it was very easy to get through large chunks of material in one day. With JavaScript, I call it a win if I get through just a few pages of the book I'm reading. It's A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript by Mark Meyers, by the way. I am also employed full-time as a teacher. My students were gone for winter vacation, and I had at least 8 hours a day to dedicate to studying. Now I'm lucky if I can get an hour or two in here or there.
Since getting this book from one of my Programming Buddies, I can study a few chapters a day, while taking notes and completing the included exercises. That is enough to make me feel like I am constantly moving forward. I can review the things I've previously learned, and having a new source material allows me to make connections as well as learning new techniques that other material may not have shared. For example, I had already learned how to code prompts, but today I learned you can code a default answer very easily. It's not as large a feeling of accomplishment as coding an entire webpage from scratch with HTML and CSS; but, learning more about JavaScript at its root will give me a stronger foundation to stand on when I get to coding some more complex things.
All in all, I'm still really excited about this career change. My brain is thinking more analytically about how sites work. I pretty much hit F12 on every website I go to so I can try to see into the brains of the coders. I'm always making a mental note of things I like on a website as well as things I don't like and how I would do it instead. I'm not there yet, but I do feel like I'm starting to think more like a coder...and it feels wonderful. I can't wait to be more comfortable with this...but at the same time, I can.
-Elle
No, its not right.
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