A glance back… progress thus far on my coding journey.
My journey began last December (2014) and it has been an amazing ride ever since! What initially got me interested in learning to code, was playing one of my favorite computer games, DayZ. I put in a lot of hours playing this game, and one day I decided I was going to rent a server and host my own game where I could play with friends, and play the way I always wanted to but never was able to find. After getting the server up and running, I was in for a brutal lesson, being a server administrator was incredibly difficult and time consuming. In order for me to play the game and add the features I wanted, I would have to manipulate the game in some way. So I began by adding in open-source code I found by other talented programmers.
This was a whole new world and a concept I was not familiar with at all. I found a ton of resources, features, plugins, etc. that allowed me to essentially create my own personal version of the game. I could create the game I always wanted to play, and the best part, other people really enjoyed this version too! I did not write a single line of code myself, I merely added other people’s code by following their documentation.
I made a lot of mistakes and crashed the server too many times to count. It was stressful and aggravating, but man was it fun!
This motivated me to want to know how these files that I was downloading from someone else, were actually changing the behavior inside the game. And so my journey began…
I quickly began researching programming and how to code, and was completely overwhelmed. There was so much out there, I had no clue that many programming languages existed. Why were there so many? Could they all produce the same results? Which one do I learn first? The more I read the more questions I had. Rather than be discouraged, I experienced the opposite. I found a completely new world, an entire universe, comprised of all sorts of people, quite opinionated too I might add. It all seemed so massive in scale, but at the same time, I was finding all of these amazing books, articles, videos, etc. jam packed with information.
In the past I taught myself music at the age of 14 by utilizing the internet, and was determined to teach myself code the same way… or so I thought. It was around this time, that I also first caught wind of these things called “boot camps.” I thought this was perfect I could dedicate 3 months of my life to intensive study and work and be on the “fast track” to becoming a programmer. I was accepted to one here in Boston, but unfortunately the financial aspects got in the way. I was unable to come up with enough money to pay for the program in addition to saving three months worth of living expenses. I was incredibly disappointed to say the least.
It took some time, but I eventually came to the realization that if I really wanted to learn this stuff, it was all on me.
Just like when I was learning how to play guitar at 14, I could not afford lessons nor could my mom, so I ended up teaching myself. After reminding myself of this, I decided to put myself through my own boot camp. I gave myself 3 months of intensive study and practice. I was currently freelancing in a completely unrelated field during this time and fortunately, business was notoriously slow during this time. So it began…
I spent a solid 8 to 12 hours a day studying and writing code, most days were even longer. This is a reflection of not only my determination, but also just how much fun I was having. It would have been dreadful spending that much time every day if I was not loving every minute of it. Ok, ok… not every minute because man I spent a lot of time frustrated and feeling like I was not smart enough or good enough to do this. However I thought this all the time when I was learning guitar and music too. I kept pressing on, and eventually the chords came, so did the code.
I decided to pursue web development as the internet has been one of the greatest tools and resources of my entire life. I think too often we take for granted just how amazing this thing really is. I also think we do not utilize it to its full potential; I hope to change that some day.
So there I was learning this HTML stuff, some weird ass language called CSS and then there was this whole other animal called Javascript and jQuery!? What is all this stuff, I thought one language was hard enough, you mean I need to know at the very least three! I began to get a completely new perspective and appreciation for the people who develop the internet, it is a lot of work! It is also incredibly complex and complicated, and oh by the way, it changes all the time. How can I keep up with all of this, I don’t even know where to begin.
I took several courses on Udemy and I also did a lot of tutorials on various free sites, FreeCodeCamp being one of them. I soon learned web developers really loved helping out one another!?! This seemed really odd and strange to me at first. In my past experience, people kept their secrets and rarely shared information, developers however were like open books.
This also opened up the world of ‘open source’. Just what exactly is this stuff anyways, just free code? That is how I first interpreted it anyways, which was great, because I was broke and couldn’t afford it anyways. I quickly realized open source is not about being free, at least not in the monetary sense, it was a philosophy… it was humble. I interpreted this whole eco-system as one big collaborative effort with one goal in mind. Share knowledge, share ideas, share code, share period. This philosophy was something I had such strong personal conviction about, and I couldn’t believe I actually found it. Collaboration always produces better results, and the ideas of many are always greater than the ideas of one.
This is remarkable! Contributors and authors of open source projects are not only giving back to the community, they are essentially saying if you have a better idea, write the code, and send it back to us. Rather than having a small team or just one person, why not have access to the smartest people in the world, and see what we can all build with ‘our powers combined’.
DayZ may have been the kindling, but Open Source was the gasoline! OO made me want to continue to work hard, stay up til 4am working on some bug I couldn’t track down, motivated me to keep pressing in. I had found a home.
Three months went by and I felt like I had made great progress, but the more I learned, the more I realized just how little I really knew. This was awesome!
I knew that it was always going to be like this, and so I knew I was in this for the long haul.
I managed to get my first job as a junior web developer working for a music company. How perfect right? I was a musician of 17 years and had my bachelor’s in composition and my first job was creating web content for a music company. I am still there now; it has been about 6 months.
To this day I still come home and study every day. Weekends are no exception either. I put in a lot of hours still, because I am trying to get rid of that ‘junior’ thing. Not only that, I am also still having an incredible time learning about all of this stuff. My phone is completely filled with coding podcasts, and I spent most of my free time learning and writing code. It’s really crazy! I never in a million years thought I would have found another passion and love like music, but I did and still am finding it.
As I look back on all of this, even though it has been less than a year, I am pretty amazed at all of the incredibly blessings that have befallen me since learning to code. I now have a career that I love, pays me well, and provides me with stability, true happiness and joy. My work has meaning and purpose, and I look forward to going into work each and every day, because frankly each day is a completely new set of problems to solve.
There is never a dull moment in this industry, I hope there never is.
All of this is to say, that if you are reading this and are learning to code currently or are interested in this stuff, go for it! You can absolutely do it, I am living proof and there are thousands more like me. I would love to help you too if I can, reach out to me, send me a tweet or email me at: robertguss@gmail.com. I truly want to help and encourage you anyway that I can. It is the least I can do, since so many people have helped me along my own journey.
I briefly just wanted to say thank you to all of the developers who have come before me, who are here now, and who are to come.
Let us not forget how special this discipline, way of life, and friend truly is. May we always share and support one another, working together to produce software that will enrich and better the world in which we live..
Finally I wanted to personally say thank you to Quincy! FreeCodeCamp is amazing, it changed my life, and it is changing the lives of so many people. Your contributions to open source, has made the world a better place, and has changed thousands of lives! It’s really remarkable, and I feel like the best days have yet to come. God bless you.
