My most recent challenging learning experience. (recited in a hit list)
“We only know a tiny proportion about the complexity of the natural world. Wherever you look, there are still things we don’t know about and don’t understand. […] There are always new things to find out if you go looking for them.”
― David Attenborough
Hit one; The Notification ✉️
July 31, year 2018, time 05:09 hrs. Beep! Beep! Beeeep! Goes my phone, I was not used to receiving email notifications at such time of the day. In my mind, I knew that something new was about to unravel and indeed, it was! It was a notification that initiated a new journey, a journey to become an Andela developer. click here to know more about andela.
Hit Rock Bottom 📉
The email I received notified that I had passed Andela entry interview and now I had to prepare for the next stage( which is Boot-camp). Soon enough another email followed with attached learning resources for the camp. Before the dust could settle another email from Andela Learning Facilitator Chrispine Chiedo, but this time around it was not a notification to access learning resources but an email to initiate the first challenge (which was to build web app called StackOverflow-lite API using flask-framework). That is where things went south, it was like making a baby to climb a cliff.
Hit three: Uncharted Territories 😮
Flask-framework, pivotal tracker, Travis-CI, Postman, Heroku and the long list of unknowns trickled in as the standard prerequisites for passing the challenge at hand. additionally the challenges had deadlines. I Had never heard these tech-words before and now am supposed to use them to build a web app. It took me more than an hour to figure out what to do, I had to level up through the resources provided. The motivation to level up was influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
Intrinsic — I want to be a software developer and thus I must study and level up to be one.
Extrinsic- from Andela core values (EPIC) “when faced with the challenge’ one should endeavor to overcome the challenge through the EPIC values”
Hit on all six 👌
I started going through the resources and asking questions from friends I met during the interview and pre-Bootcamp session. Through slack conversations, I was able to identify my shortcoming and I quickly finished the first part of the challenge which was to build the user-interface. I started by setting the working environment and installing the required services. I was able to write the script files <html> and its beautifier {css}. The time given could not allow me to study and implement JavaScript syntax. I was able to set up my folder structure correctly (Thanks to learning facilitator who engineered the Pre-Bootcamp session). Though I could not be able to submit the first part of the challenge in time due to power problem (in programming such obstacles are referred to as blockers) the learning facilitator extended my deadline (after requesting for more time).
Hit a plateau 🙌
After submitting challenge one, I had level up for the next phase of the challenge. The second part of the challenge was not all merry as the first part, the cliff became stepper and I could not see the sun. I spent five days reading, researching, revising and trying to understand this thing called API and endpoints. At some point, I wondered if these API endpoints that I was working on were to be my endpoint with the Boot-camp. But being that I can learn, understand and overcome. This Boot-camp is the platform that will catapult my potential to the next level. Armed with passion, positivism, potential and distinctive urge to learn. My hard work and passion will justify the endpoint to this tech journey .
Hit! The end 🔚
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
Michael Jordan