How I got started with programming

Intro to a thing called programming

I was a slightly above average student in school. From my early days, I was interested in physics and mathematics. I used to read a science and technology magazine that kept me up to date. One day I was reading about the journey of a guy who later worked at Google. He told these amazing stories about how he got into competitive programming and eventually got a job at Google.

Generally, I had an image in my mind that the conventional job holder would hate his work and his boss, but that guy loved his job. I was curious that he loved what he did! So I did some research about how to start coding and discovered that Python is the easiest to learn.

Writing my first line of code

Python was the first programming language I managed to learn in 2018, and I must say it was a fascinating experience. I created a couple of cool Python games, but I didn’t know how to use git and publish my work. In addition, I kept wondering what to do now that I’d learned it because I didn’t have proper guideline back then. Pretty soon I lost interest in programming and days went by.

Becoming a Full Stack developer

In September 2020, I learned about something called web development. I decided to learn web development after watching a YouTube video on HTML and CSS. I was skeptical at first, wondering if I would ever be able to learn web development after seeing so many people struggle with JavaScript. I had no idea that all programming concepts are the same, and I had previously learned Python, so all of that theory transferred when learning JavaScript. I completed Freecodecamp’s Responsive Web Design Certification course, Front-end Engineer career path of CodeCademy and a course in my mother tongue.

While learning, I built a ton of projects which boosted my confidence. I accepted an internship offer in September 2021. How I got my first internship is a story for another time.

My journey to becoming a Full Stack web developer was not easy. There were times I lacked motivation, times when I wanted to give up, and times when I felt like I had an IQ of 200. But I’m glad I stuck around. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life (like the guy who inspired me to learn how to code).