Finding My Way into Front-End Development
Where it all began
Film after film, you’d see the stereotypical nerd whip out a few lines of code to save the day — “Just a little tweak here, a few keystrokes there, and…done!” The crisis had been averted, the world saved. As a self-proclaimed geek, i’d always watched these moments with fascination. So, why did it take me until my mid-20s to realise how badly I wanted to be that nerd and how much it really could be in my grasp?
Until recently, I was stuck in a dead-end job, managing people who didn’t respect me. I’ll admit, I wasn’t a great fit for management — social anxiety made it hard for me to connect with people and to be honest, I was just there for my monthly paycheck (which wasn’t all that great, either). I’d never known exactly what I wanted out of life and I was constantly looking for something more, something that would truly excite me.
That moment came when my partners sibling, a developer, was talking about building games, creating websites, solving all these technical problems everyday. I was captivated by the idea of creating something from scratch, of coding something that could be interactive, alive, functional. The more I heard about what they did, the more I wanted to dive into that world.
At the same time, I was nearing the end of my job and preparing for a big life change. I was moving to a new city, my flat was being sold and I was hunting for a new job. During my final weeks at work, I found myself immersed in a task, I had rows upon rows of data to filter through, sort, organise and clean and to my surprise I loved it. There was something so incredibly satisfying about organising the data, applying formulas and the eureka moment of when that idea finally all comes together and works in a structured way.
This is when it really clicked how much I wanted to deep-dive into this world of data and of coding and to consume as much information on it as possible.
Information Overload (Help!!)
If you’ve ever Googled “how to start coding,” you’ll know that information overload is real. From countless languages to different learning methods, everyone has an opinion on what’s best. YouTube is filled with titles like “LEARN THIS METHOD AND BECOME A SENIOR DEV IN 6 MONTHS” — it’s overwhelming.
After talking with my developer in-law, I decided to start with SQL. I love data, and it seemed like a natural fit, even though it wasn’t exactly programming. But after a while, I realised I wanted to build projects. SQL is great for data, but I craved something more interactive.
That’s when YouTube became my best friend. I watched a 12-hour intro to HTML and CSS and even built a YouTube clone. But by the end of the video, I was struggling to keep up. The problem? I wasn’t learning the why behind the code — I was just following along without understanding key concepts like Flexbox or the difference between ‘align-items’ and ‘justify-content’. Life got in the way, and this journey took a backseat for a while.
A Fresh Start
Fast forward to two months ago. I was house-sitting, had finished all my exams for my current job, and I was getting bored of gaming. I spent most of my day on my phone or laptop and stumbled across another YouTube video about learning to code. This time, it was different — it gave me a clear path. No more sifting through endless “best tutorials.”
That’s how I found CS50 and The Odin Project. I’ve been working through The Odin Projects Foundations course, and while JavaScript has been a bit overwhelming, the method is working for me. Some kind Reddit users suggested I try CS50 as well, and I’ve been cautiously balancing the two. I’m trying not to overload myself, but I’m taking it easy and loving every minute of it.
I’m really enjoying this new lease on learning, and I want to share my journey with everyone. I’d love to build a community of people learning to code so we can do it together, sharing experiences and helping each other grow.
So, if you’re new to coding and want to chat, please reach out! And remember — when it gets hard, take a step back and come back to it later (I can’t tell you how many times a solution has come to me in the most random of moments). Keep going — one line of code at a time.
Peace
VeeringNugget
