Reflection 10/10/16
Today is the start of our second week at Array. The last week has been a whirlwind of change for myself and, I would assume, everyone else. It has been a tremendous change in my day to day life making the transition from working on the railroad to moving into a classroom and learning the basics of HTML and CSS. I am thrilled to have made the move, as wild as it has been. This is truly where I have wanted to be for the last several years. I am thankful for the opportunity to be on the road to a career I thought I could have only dreamt of 6 months ago.
Over the course of the last week, we primarily touched on the basics of how the Internet, as we know it, works. Following that, we began our road to code. We started with basic HTML and CSS properties and layout that we put to work on our first coding challenge. The first challenge was to create a button using HTML and CSS. My button was a recreation (or skeuomorphism, being turning real life objects into something using technology, I learned this term too)of Staple’s easy button. I won this first challenge, being voted as having had the best button by my classmates. We ended the first week with a project where we built a Navigation Bar for a website. Seeing the differences in style and how we each take different paths for our projects is nice. It shows different ways to think about approaching problems or methods of creation. I cannot wait to delve into more HTML and CSS as well as get started into Javascript to make things come alive even more so down the road.
Having gone through the first week, I definitely like the culture of Array. It doesn’t have the feeling I used to associate with school where I dreaded going. I look forward to coming in every morning and seeing what new information I can pick up that day. I am also looking forward to our guest speakers every week. Carter Parks was our first guest speaker and I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to his path to success and how he approaches his business. The chance to hear from quite a new speaker every week will be an amazing chance to see how broad the spectrum is that we can chase once we finish school in 6 months whether that be freelance work, starting our own companies, or finding an awesome company to work for. It is a great way to end the week for me.
All in all, the first week at Array was a great experience for me. It served to really get me excited for the next 23 weeks. I am looking forward to the journey with everyone here and to what it culminates in down the road.
