Halfway There

It’s hard to believe I am almost halfway through my fullstack web development bootcamp. In the first half of this adventure, I have learned so much. Yet, I feel like I still have so much to learn. Before entering this bootcamp, I was exhausted by the emotional demands of my previous workplace. I felt I had the grit and perseverance to learn something new, and with my wife’s encouragement, I entered into this camp right as I was ending my previous career. Several weeks in now, I still feel I have the determination to succeed and land a junior web development role. However, now I see reality and I see what challenges lie ahead. Some of the biggest hurdles I have overcome so far are largely mental, finalizing projects and working to understand the logic and computational thinking behind code. I am growing in my understanding and logical comprehension everyday, but I still have much to learn. Studying the front-end was fun for me. I enjoyed the experience,and already knew some fundamentals from tutorials and work I have done in my spare time before the bootcamp. I think my next major challenge will be back-end work. Understanding the logic and thinking behind the code without seeing the immediate results pop up on the screen seems difficult to me. Of course, we are just one week into Python. I know (and hope) it will get easier to understand in time.

Different Strokes

Python is more similar to javaScript than what I originally thought. A Lot of the logic is the same (thank you Pseudocode). In some ways, Python seems easier to read and understand to me, as the syntax is so much simpler and easier to recall. I think the major issue for me will be understanding what Python is doing along the way. With javaScript, I could really see it in action. I could create a function to convert a temperature to Fahrenheit and quickly display it on the screen. Python is a little different. Most of the work is what the end-user never sees, so I have to debug and think through in a different way than I have before. Still, I love the simple language and syntax of Python, and hope that will make the transition into back-end development easier for me.

Final Thoughts

I am still unsure exactly what I want to create for my final project. I am totally unsure of specific requirements, as we have not really discussed yet as a whole group. I think the idea of doing it based on sports or even basketball teams could be fun. I’m a huge basketball fan, and have always had passion for the game. This week, our project was on a video game I have neve played before, and at times I struggled to understand and stay intrigued. With a basketball project, my curiosity would definitely be peaked. If not a sports database, perhaps I could build a site for selling. Developing an e-commerce website for clothing could be fun, and I like the idea of developing something that could directly be practical in a future job. If neither of those ideas come to fruition, I think it would be interesting to create a project based upon educational resources. Since I have a background in education, perhaps I could create a site that sells high end tech educational resources (think Teacher Pay Teachers but prettier). That could be a fun way to integrate my love and passion for education with my newfound tech skills. Only time will tell, but I am excited to continue on this journey and continue to grind through to be the best web developer I can be.