100+ Days of Code as a Full-time Medical Student
INTRODUCTION
The many beginnings
This is as much a story of learning the taste of different energy drinks as it is a story of begging myself to wake up 15 minutes before I am meant to be in school and living on 2–3 hours of sleep. Here’s the story behind “Day X of #100DaysOfCode”.
My journey with code dates back to August 2019, when I created my Github account. It was needed for the HNG Internship that year-which I enrolled in-but it didn’t take me more than 1 month to conclude that code wasn’t for me. That sent me sliding through writing, public relations, digital marketing, UI/UX, social entrepreneurship, etc. In simple terms, if you can think of it, I’ve tried it. LMAO. Multipotentialite but without potentializing anything.
In late 2020, though, I thought I should try coding again, so I started learning HTML and CSS with TheOdinProject. I remember the joy of making a Google homepage clone and pushing it to GitHub. From then till 2022, I dropped and picked coding up at convenience, but there was a progressive change in commitment — an upward trend.
In December 2021, I went with friends to DevFest Lagos, and I got a glimpse of what was possible with tech just by observing the quality of sneakers at the event.
But what really changed things was OSCAFEST ’22. I practically stole away with a friend, deciding that we’d be going from Ibadan to Lagos only the evening before. There, I saw people who weren’t only building great stuff but also sharing publicly their accomplishments, methods, and advice. Honestly, it was inspiring. I told a friend on getting back to Ibadan that something had changed in me, but I didn’t know what it was. I guess I saw what was possible by building on the internet with much more clarity.
At that point, I knew I wanted to do the #100DaysOfCode. A lot of people attributed their career progress to it during the event. Although it was something I wanted to do, there was the constant feeling of, “today isn’t promising enough to start,” but I finally summoned the courage to begin by tweeting on April 6.
THE MOTIVATION
What kept the beginning going?
As I’ve said earlier, I’ve lived a lot of lives. At some point, it got scary considering what people would recognize and recommend me for.
It’s always been in the back of my mind that I do too much at the same time. Focusing on my first Medical Board (MB) Exam was the first wake-up call to streamline and shed weight. I knew that # 100DaysOfCode was a chance for people to recognize me as a software developer, and I wasn’t going to blow it.
Now, I code.
If that’s not enough or gets restrictive, I can always put another stone on the boulder, but what’s important is that there’s a cornerstone. An unintended effect that I think changed everything was that it quickly became a strong part of my identity. I’m a coder. What do coders do? code. So go code, man. That’s it.
#100DaysOfCode is a public commitment. I posted on Twitter as the major platform and shared screenshots on most days on my Whatsapp status. Friends and family complimented my progress and addressed me as the “tech bro”. It was easier to keep on keeping on. I’d constantly remind myself, “Quitting is not a good look, so, get yourself together, man.”
THE JOURNEY
The path of constant beginnings
In the beginning, it was easy.
Everything made sense. We were off school due to the ASUU strike and so I had a lot of time to spend learning and building. But soon, we were back in school for another round of clinical postings. From then on, it was hard. I was juggling school, code, relationships and gyming. Kai. Oju mi bo. [Literal Translation: My eyes peeled. Metaphorical Translation: It was difficult.]
I had to settle into a routine. The ideal day goes thus:
- Go to school by 8am/9am for ward rounds.
- Come back from school at 12pm-2pm and quickly write a few lines of code or sleep.
- Wake up by 4pm/6pm and go back to school for tutorials.
- Return to the hostel at 8pm.
- Start coding around 10pm into the night.
- Tweet my night’s progress as #XDayOfCode.
- Go to sleep by 5am on a very good day and then
- Go to school hours later by 8am/9am.
Being a full-time clinical medical student is hard, but doing it with #100DaysOfCode, which requires daily output and reaching specific personal milestones before I tweet, is harder. There were days when I came back from school by 10 pm, switched on my laptop, and started coding, and within an hour of tearing up and yawning, I was asleep.
What’s funny in retrospect is how I judged a few of my classmates who bought Fearless almost daily in preparation for our first MB exams less than a year ago. O, na me drink am pass for Q2 2022. I am exaggerating, but really, I relied on energy drinks most days when I was exhausted and didn’t have energy for much.
There were nights I’d lie on my bed thinking I’d read a Zikoko article before going to the hostel’s reading room to code, and I’d wake up to my 15-minute school alarm ushering me into the new day. As you might expect, I’d be grumpy and angry on my way to school. Those were the ghetto days. All my babe needed to hear was, “I slept,” and she understood, bruh.
I also started appreciating the beauty of boredom while in school. Sometimes, I could stand for hours on a ward round learning nothing. In the clinic, I’d be looking on as the resident attended to patients, completely oblivious to the presence of students. I decided to fill some of these moments with code challenges on code wars. That’s easier said than done, though. Most of the time, all it took for school to wear me down for the day was trying to answer the question, “When will we be released for the day?” From then on, checking social media/youtube was the way I went.
Towards the end of the #100DaysOfCode, I started to understand myself better; I was likely to sleep an hour after eating food; I’d be really tired after taking pure water in the middle of the night; It was better to take long calls with my babe on my chair rather than on my bed. They appear to be little things, but they differentiated the days that I coded and tweeted from the ones where I was pissed on my way to school.
This leads us to the core of everything, my working principle:
Figure out your why. Keep it in mind as you sit down to code. Stare at your laptop for a long time. Remind yourself to be patient. Bang your head on your desk or your hands on your keyboard as you type in frustration. Repeat all over till the code unravels and you feel like some genius. Sometimes walk away…
Honestly, writing code is relatively simple, but it’s not easy. I’ve gotten so used to being with my laptop these days that sometimes human interactions don’t flow like they used to. I’ve lost my curiosity as to what’s going on in the lives of a lot of people, and my will to go to the gym has tremendously decreased.
My current emotions [frustration, disappointment, excessive happiness, excitement] about code usually seep into other areas of my life. On days when I’m happy, I learn stuff and I build stuff. I see what I built. It looks good. I feel good. Just the opposite on days when I am sad. I try stuff, and it breaks. I see what’s broken, but I don’t know why it’s broken. It looks bad. I feel bad.
On days when I’m happy, I learn stuff and I build stuff. I see what I built. It looks good. I feel good. Just the opposite on days when I am sad. I try stuff, and it breaks. I see what’s broken, but I don’t know why it’s broken. It looks bad. I feel bad.
The journey was filled with ups and downs. I am glad I embarked on the #100DaysOfCode. I am a software engineer. I wake up with a purpose every day. I remind myself when the going gets tough that I can achieve all I set my mind to do. I believe I’d be really good one day, but till then, it’s day 1.
Andiamo!
Technology Stack Learned
- CSS (Responsive Web Design & Animations): Intermediate
- Bootstrap and SASS: Intermediate
- JavaScript: Intermediate
- Python: Intermediate
- Django & Flask: Intermediate
- SQL & PostgreSQL: Intermediate
Projects built (some examples)
- Manage Landing Page URL
- Starbucks Landing Page URL
- To-do List URL
- PlanIt Landing Page URL
- Frontend Bootcamp Landing Page URL
To see more projects and source code, tap here.
THE SUPPORT
Hands were held, the head was raised, the legs moved, and the heart continued to beat.
It is incredibly difficult to watch someone struggle to be better in 100+ days. It is filled with wondering how you can help on most days, helping out with what you can and being vigilant to catch a new way that opens up. So, I am in awe of the people who have come on this journey with me.
I’m grateful to my family, my babe and close friends.
I’m grateful to my coding friends and senior colleagues, whose stories and daily lives are motivation to keep moving.
I am grateful to friends who didn’t understand much of what drove me crazy but kept in touch and kept asking about my daily progress. I am grateful to the friends who sometimes tried to guess what day I was on because “the last day I saw your status was…”. heartwarming
The tech ecosystem is amazing. People are willing and happy to help. A lot of strangers who I reached out to have become friends. I’m grateful.
NEXT STEPS
Each beginning exits at the end.
Now, I am focused on consolidating the solid foundation of #100DaysOfCode while strongly prioritizing balance across the various aspects of my life.
I’m currently working through a Udacity Fullstack Web Nanodegree program and showing up daily. I’m back at the gym after a long hiatus.
How to end this? A quote should suffice.
That which is dreamed cannot be grasped but work towards it day after day and you will find it in your hands
— Akko, Little Witch Academia
