The Struggle is Real
JavaScript and Python are two of the most popular programming languages on Earth. JavaScript is the most powerful and well known language of the front-end. Python is, in my mind, its back-end equivalent. Both are incredibly powerful, but look very different. Both have powerful libraries and frameworks attached to them, such as React for vanilla JS or Django for Python. Their syntax is very different, as Python is typically easier to read and understand at a glance. Python is also much more Object-Oriented, which means the code is organized by objects and less by functions. I typically prefer JavaScript, simply because functional programming makes more sense to me. However, I do love the simple syntax of Python and its readability.
This tech stack has been so challenging for me. Python is easy to read and understand, but has been harder for me to create. I’ve been studying JavaScript off and on for a year, but the past three weeks was really my first major introduction to Python. I like Python. It is easy to read, but it’s still so new to me. Because it is so new, I am struggling to understand and implement all of its features. I really struggled with whiteboard interviews this week and felt awful. In this bootcamp, you have to work hard. I’ve worked hard my whole life, and usually, working hard has always been enough for me. I’m studying all day, at night, after my wife goes to bed. Still, it isn't always enough. That has been the most challenging part for me. Hard work alone isn’t enough. I still have to learn so much and really understand what I am reading and trying to learn. I think that has been the hardest thing about this tech stack, and the bootcamp in general. The Django set-up is very confusing, but I do feel much better about the experience since completing this week's project. I finally understand what views, models, and urls.py are doing. Overall, I know I am growing. I am learning, just not at the pace that I want and I am not where I want to be in my creation and understanding of code.
Every Wednesday, we do a Lunch and Learn where different employees at various companies come in and discuss their jobs with us. Most of them are software engineers, though some are in leadership or do Quality Assurance work. I have really enjoyed hearing the perspective of different employees and hearing about their day to day. I would love to have more Lunch and Learns from specific alumni who still work at the company they hired out of the bootcamp. Most of the people we met said their company wasn’t hiring, so I would love to meet people at a company that is hiring so we have that network available to us. All in all, they have been very enjoyable and very practical.
This week, we worked to create an API via Django to connect to our previously created React Random Restaurant menu. I was able to connect the two, and learned so much about Django and table database management. My main focus this week was importing JSON data into my tables, which I was eventually able to do (with just a few hiccups along the way). I finally made sense of the models, views, and url files that caused me so much confusion early in the week. Still, this week has been especially tough. I have been working very hard, but just not seeing the results I want. I have much growth in terms of technical skills to go, and worry about how long it will take me to get there. I know I best learn through practice. I enjoy reading and occasionally watch videos for a visual, but I get this information in my working memory the best by actually creating projects on my own within my own zone of proximal development (ZPD in teacher talk). I know I can get where I want to be, but I am just worried I am getting there too slowly. I need to continue to push, to persevere. To give all that I’ve got to this journey. Keep on working through the struggle!
