What learning to code means to me after the election
A year ago when I applied for the Edie Windsor Lesbians Who Tech Scholarship, I remember having a simple reason why I wanted to learn how to code: I wanted every tool at my disposal to make change. A year later, having just completed a part-time javascript intensive during the throes of the last leg of the presidential election, I can now say, that statement rings even truer for me. Below is my yearlong journey that includes a 10 week javascript intensive. I hope my story will provide some comic relief, a few lessons, and a roadmap for the excited and weary traveler who takes to the path of learning how to code.
How I got started
My road to starting a coding intensive came with it’s share of setbacks. The class I had originally planned to attend, an iOS development intensive, got cancelled 2 times, and then was converted to a full-time intensive that I couldn’t enroll in because I was working full-time. Thankfully, I ignored the messages that the universe might have been trying to send me, and instead, I did a bit of research, consulted with a number of folks, and settled on enrolling in a part-time javascript intensive. As a complete novice, I honestly wasn’t sure how it was going to help me to learn how to “build apps” and save the world as I planned, but I trusted my advisors.
I was all set to get things rolling during the summer, when the company I am helping to build was accepted to a 2 month accelerator, forcing me to postpone my enrollment to the fall. So while I was really exciting about the opportunity provided by accelerator, I was also feeling really frustrated that it wouldn’t be until the fall before things really got started.
First Lesson
This brings me to my first lesson about doing a coding intensive — Learning how to code will take a lot of time. A lot. Don’t believe all that hour of code nonsense. That’s like the infomercial for the 10 video boxset you are ordering. If you are one of those people who has a lot going on in your life, and are used to spinning multiple plates while juggling, it may take some time for you to get your calendar in order. Prepare for that, and plan early!
When I finally began the intensive, my life had changed significantly. I had left my day job to work full-time on the company I was helping to build, and was developing my portfolio as a tech safety trainer and consultant. In my previous career, I was a domestic violence advocate, and I had since built out a niche where I train folks on helping survivors with tech literacy and safety planning. There aren’t a lot of former domestic violence advocates turned startup techies, so I jumped in to build a bridge between these two worlds and help foster some critical knowledge exchange.
Second lesson
The small non-profit sector and startup and tech worlds are on separate planets — in different galaxies. But they/we critically need one another. If there is anything we are holding on to in this post election world right now it’s that. We, the people, need one another to create solutions to the problems for our communities.
The Intensive
Building up to the intensive, a common refrain from me to my colleagues was, “So sorry, I can’t. Catch me in mid December. I’m in an intensive. An I n t e n s i v e. ” Honestly, I’m not sure it registered to most people what that meant, or at least what those words meant for me. I wanted people to know that this was a big freaking deal for me and it’s was going to take all of my mental bandwidth to survive it.
Before the intensive, I was used to getting a lot of things done. I knew how to maximize my time and work efficiently. I prided myself on being able to do so much on so little time. Learning how code required that I completely change how I worked and learn. Things were going to take TIME.
The first day of class, we went around the room and explained why we each had enrolled in the intensive. Almost all of my classmates said something about working as developers or designers who already did a bit of coding and were adding on an additional skill set. I said something like, “I want to save the world… mumble… I work at a startup…mumble…I want to bring tech to the people!” Okay, it wasn’t that crazy, but close.
The first few weeks of class weren’t too bad. They still had the training wheels on, and while a lot of the language was totally new to me, I was still understanding the shape of what was happening enough to follow along. And then by week 3, I almost fell off the cliff of the steep coding learning curve. The first things I stopped understanding were the how and why we would use certain tools. Each session we learned a new aspect of javascript, which felt a bit like learning how a small part of a ship would be created, when you didn’t really know what the boat would look like or where it might go.
Third Lesson:
One of the hardest things for me to understand and hold on to as a brand new coder was the big picture. The sooner you can start building something - anything - the better. Then, you can flesh the picture out with the pieces that comprise it. Some people might learn more incrementally. I needed to see large swaths before tiny details.
By week 11, I was in the stage where I remembered thinking. “Okay, I understand all the words they are using. They are speaking in English. And yet, when they string those words together, they are washing over me in a sea of sentences that I don’t precisely understand.” Frequently, I would go to class and think, “I have no idea what is going on”, but then somehow I magically could do the code alongs and exercises in class. I realized that I was learning how to code, despite not understanding what exactly my instructor meant when things were explained.
Fourth Lesson
Learn by doing. Reading books and articles about coding were not helpful for me. (They might be for others.) Watching people code in class and on youtube videos, then reading their code, and trying it for myself, laid down the knowledge for me.
At week five, we were getting closer and closer to the election. I remember seeing Facebook posts from all my friends canvassing around the country, and felt envious. I had participated in politics locally and through a lot of the content I create on Latinos in politics, but I wanted to be out there! Instead, I was on the 13th floor of a very fancy building in downtown Boston staring a super-tiny numbers and letters on a projector screen.
I was starting to lose sight of how I was going to change the world with this skill I was acquiring. And… I was most literally losing sight. I scheduled an appointment with my optometrist who gave me a new prescription (significant change), and asked if I could reduce the number of hours I spent staring at a computer screen. My response: “Nope, sorry, I’m learning to code.” [Insert: Can’t you see I’m on a mission here?!]
I slogged to class week after week. By “advanced APIs”, I had decided I had 2 things to hold on to:
(1) Keep going to class.
(2) Pay attention as solidly as you can and hope to absorb. I remember at this point, my instructor and TA saying that even they found these sections hard, which only sort of helped to console me. Were we the blind leading the blind?
Election Night
The night of the election, I thought I would be at a bar somewhere celebrating the victory of our first woman president. I’d bought my partner a special shirt that said, “A women’s place is in the revolution!” hoping she could wear it that night. Where was I instead? I was at my coding intensive struggling to learn about APIs, while hitting the refresh button on NYTimes.com to get election results. At the point where Hillary Clinton only had a 70% chance of winning, I had that sinking feeling in my stomach. It was all over. That night, although I could see my classmates loading and refreshing their screens too, no one said a word about the election. We left quickly and quietly to await the news at home.
In the days that followed, I felt devastated. My company, BeVisible, works on getting more young Latinos into the innovation economy. I worried that it was all over. I took a few days to be in denial, cry, and try to find my bearings, and then reached out one of my colleagues who runs a LATAM-focused workbar and asked if he would be interested in co-hosting an event that I was calling the State of Latino Entrepreneurship. My vision for the event was simple: host a gathering of Latino entrepreneurs where we could begin to pick up the pieces and identify action steps.
One of the biggest conclusions that came forth from the event was the need to seriously start training more Latinos in tech to fill the STEM jobs that would likely be in even higher demand, especially with new immigration reforms. Everyone knew that STEM was important before the election, but you could feel now that they were ready to double down their efforts. People were talking coding intensives and accessible job training programs. One person even suggested a career roadshow where we could introduce these types of jobs, which many folks in the Latino community still don’t quite understand the appeal of or what would be entailed. Because I was in an intensive at the time, I felt uniquely positioned to help articulate what would be needed to help support people going through these programs. I knew it had been hard for me, really hard, and I had a lot more privilege than others.
Fifth Lesson
I wish someone would have told me how hard it was going to be and in what ways. Reading other novice coders’ accounts online helped, but at times, I felt like the only non-developer who was struggling in the sink or swim environment. I later learned everyone feels like this while they are learning to code, and many of my classmates with more experience than me had felt the same way. I really wished people would have expressed this more openly. What is the code of silence about? (← see what I did there?)
The homestretch/the beginning
My last two weeks of class, we were each trying to wrap up our final projects. I had an idea to turn a cell phone safety chart I created with a colleague for domestic violence survivors into a simple decision tree. The project turned out not to be very simple. (That’s the story of everyone’s first coding project isn’t it?). I presented it to my class, really not sure what anyone would think. I felt like a child holding a rudimentary sketch up to my parents and saying, “Look, I made you a picture!” For most of the intensive, my classmates didn’t do a lot of socializing. We hardly took bathroom breaks, so I was really surprised when they demonstrated their support and how encouraging they were of me and my project. Some messaged me and said the would be happy to help me build the project out. I was stoked: more tech people who want to help domestic violence survivors! YES!
I left that night feeling proud that I made it through my coding intensive.
I was appreciative of how many micro steps it took for me to make one tiny step forward, and had a renewed commitment to keep on walking, and I know, I will leap one day.
My plans moving forward are to sign up for every free coding meetup group I can, and just keep learning. I know that I will need community to keep developing, and I also feel more confident that I can learn a lot of this in an informal settings.
Sixth Lesson
You really can learn a hell of a lot online for free. Really, it’s not a copout. People used to tell me to do the free stuff online, and I thought they just didn’t want to help me. But in the midst of this intensive, all the free youtube videos people make helped me to understand what was going on. And BTW, who are these people who make all these videos for free? Are they tech missionaries? Tech saints?
Code on.
So while Thursday may have been the end of my intensive, it really just marked the beginning of my journey in learning to code. I am incredibly grateful to the Lesbians Who Tech Community, Leanne, Dom, & Patty, and all who donated to give this crazy idealist the funding to pursue her goal. For my teacher Mike who was always cheerful and supportive even when I am certain he only saw deadpan looks on our faces. For my very patient partner Kat who drove me to class every week in Boston traffic so I wouldn’t have to pay a million dollars for parking. And for every set back I had that built endurance in me. The road is long, but we can get there together.
Let’s keep working to make 2017 another incredible year for the LGBTQ and POC in tech communities regardless of that giant set back we’ll have in the Oval Office.
