Bloggasaurus Rex, an SDG Saga

A lot of time has passed since my most recent blog. Shocking I’m even capable of writing this, as I expected my head would have exploded from my experience at SDG by now… To clarify, I love The Suncoast Developers’ Guild. It has challenged me beyond everything (besides the unnecessarily difficult course Business Finance [FIN3403] I took with John Banko at The University of Florida) I have ever touched academically. It has been extremely emotionally draining and physically taxing, all while being one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Despite my time in the program having mostly torn apart the aspects of my life I considered normal, I actually wish the program was longer. I have made some amazing friends, gained some invaluable experience, and have been lucky enough to have the presence of incredible mentors around me every time I step through SDG’s doors. These mentors, however, have not only brought me joy and overwhelming bouts of confusion that left me savoring for answers. They’ve brought me self-doubt, and, to a degree, anguish.

It’s not because these amazing humans are bad people or mistreating me or anyone else, for that matter. It’s because they’re so insanely good at what they do that they’re daunting to ask questions of. Not because they make themselves difficult to approach, but their level of skill makes me feel like me asking them why a lowercase letter instead of a capital letter breaks my code is an enormous waste of their time. They remind me every time: “This is what [we’re] here for.” I have struggled with this immensely through the course of the program. Thankfully, as of the last couple weeks, I have been getting better about asking questions without the shame! What perplexes me about this issue I’ve had is that, in my academic career, I have been the most curious, most likely person to ask questions. However, I have not experienced anything that has ever made me feel so clueless as going through SDG has. The difference between then and now is just how new of a subject this is to me, whereas mostly everything I’ve learned before has been built on previous knowledge.

I feel so, so lucky to be in a place where I get the one-on-one attention from very overqualified instructors every day. That, coupled with my unforgettable experiences with classmates has made for a program that has me pumping the brakes and trying to drag out each and every day until the finish line.

The craziest part about feeling so clueless?

I’m learning so much.