Finding Bloc
I was living in Los Angeles, trying to make my living as a freelancer. I had been in the city for 5 years, never once holding down a “traditional” job. I wanted to live my own life on my own terms. I was chasing freedom. I was able to take days off whenever I wanted. Go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. I never had to worry about being forced to go to work while sick, or having to deal with requesting and getting approved for time off. The thought of having some “Boss” just decide whether I could go on a road trip or to a music festival was the stuff of nightmares for me.
As the years went on, things changed. Housing prices soared. I had been a lucky girl for most of my life — Spoiled to a point. Of course, there came a time when that had to change. The freelance life that I’d coveted turned into a prison right before my eyes. All of a sudden I was working staggering hours and being paid much less than I was worth. I stopped being able to see my friends. My social life shut down. My life was now dedicated to working just to make ends meet in the place I now called home. My life in Los Angeles was amazing all except for one thing — Money — and all the problems that came with not having enough of it.
One day in February of this year, after a full-blown panic attack over my electric bill, I had the heartbreaking realization that I had to call it and move home to Rhode Island. Stress was a prison that I didn’t have to live in. I was fortunate enough to have a large safety net — My family owns and lives in an apartment building and one of the units is mine. Always there for me, rent-free. I never wanted to have to use that safety net, but I’ll never be able to express the extent of my gratitude for it being there. My family bailed me out and helped me get all my things back home.
Now the question was… What to do next?
It’s extremely easy to get lazy and stagnate in a place like Rhode Island. It’s small. It’s comfortable. People get stuck there. Some people enjoy the quaint, quiet simplicity that living in a place like Rhode Island gives you. Everything is cheaper. Your friends and family are always close by. You struggle less, overall. It’s pretty difficult to get “beaten down” by a place like Rhode Island. Call me a glutton for punishment maybe, but I immediately started making my plans and moves to get back out. And my family, largely, showed me the way.
I owed them, point-blank, for all the support and help they had given me. And what they wanted me to do was get into web development.
I was nervous. I was an artist. I had a creative mind. Getting into this was going to require learning to think in a completely different way. But I couldn’t deny that they were on to something. The money was amazing and I already had a few friends in the industry, friends who were happy and who never had to stress about money. I made up my mind to do what was going to make my family happy.
So how did I come to Bloc specifically? Well, first I looked into Launch Academy, a program that a couple of my friends had done. I was looking for an intense and well-rounded online program. I called Launch to discover that they had discontinued their online program. I asked them for recommendations. They gave me many — but the one that came the most highly recommended was bloc.io.
Upon researching the different programs, it quickly became clear to me why Bloc stood above all the rest. Most of the other bootcamps were of a shorter duration, and less well-rounded. Bloc offered 8 months of education in everything from learning programming languages to building a resume. Another important thing was how much Bloc stressed the aspect of community. All students are encouraged to interact with and help one another through Slack channels. Students are also assigned mentors with whom they meet weekly to discuss their progress and go over things they’re struggling with. I don’t believe any other program can offer the amount of resources that Bloc can.
I liked the idea that Bloc was so confident in their abilities to help their students find jobs that they offered a full tuition reimbursement. This is a company that genuinely wants you to do well and succeed, and will do whatever it can to get you there. And there was one last thing: The scholarship. Bloc is so dedicated to expanding representation in tech that I, as a woman, was able to apply for a scholarship for up to 40% off the tuition. And I got the full 40%. I felt excited and like this was the first step into a brand new life.
Things are wide open for me right now and I can’t know exactly what’s going to happen. There are so many options — All of them good. I feel saved thanks to Bloc, and like I’m making progress toward a new kind of freedom every single day.