I’ve quit coding a hundred times

A little over a year ago, I made a career transition. It wasn’t my first career transition and it may not be my last. I went to a coding bootcamp, with only the smallest inkling of what to expect. I was married to a coder and had hung around with coders and never really understood what they were talking about, nor what made them tick. I’ve always worked with my hands. Always worked on my feet.

For eleven years, I worked in the printing industry. Mostly in newspapers. It was a job. I wore a dark blue uniform with my name stitched over a pocket. I had a Teamsters card. I climbed ladders and spun wrenches in order to make my product. I was good at it. I ran a five-story tall printing press, printing The New York Times for distribution throughout Missouri and some neighboring states. It was a skill that I wished that I could put more to the public’s benefit, but unless someone had their own printing press producing free literature for the public, there wasn’t much that I could do.

Since people stopped buying newspapers, I made the decision to get out of the printing industry and learn a new skill set. I already enjoyed baking at home and really wanted to take it to the next level. Culinary school gave me the professional skills to start my career as a pastry chef. Part of my culinary school’s curriculum allowed me to work with a local food pantry, producing food for those in need. I left school full of intentions to continue this kind of volunteer work but the realities of working in restaurants and bakeries for a living dampened those intentions. When you’re already working in a kitchen sixty to seventy hours a week, spending more time in a kitchen is undesirable. My wife was already complaining about not getting to see enough of me as it was.

Now I’m a coder. A new coder. A struggling coder. There were certainly some struggles in learning how to get a perfect and consistent magazine fold printing 35,000 copies and hour. I’ve had cakes collapse and over worked the dough for two hundred Parker House rolls. Nothing has come easy, but those struggles have all paled in comparison to how much coding beats me down on the regular. I’ve quit a hundred times in my mind.

But one thing keeps me trying. One thing will keep me trying. I can help people with my code. I will help people with my code. There are so many opportunities to use these new skills to help the public. To help those in need. That’s what will make all of these struggles worth it.

I’ve quit coding a hundred times, and yet every day I get up and code.

P.S. I’m looking for a job. Please feel free to look at my portfolio and hire me.