My first week at gSchool
I anxiously hopped onto a bus early monday morning to ensure I wasn’t late to my first day of class. I was excited. I was stressed. I was prepared to buckle down and bang my head against a wall until it moved if that’s what it took to get into web development. I expected a very rigorous hardcore academic and memorization grind from the beginning.
I walked into the classroom and met our instructor, Jeff Dean, sat down, and chatted with a classmate. As everyone shuffled into class, Jeff announced that the first thing we were going do was stand up and play summer camp style name games. I was confused. No laptop. No schedule. Name games. I was hungry to code and understand Ruby, why are we playing name games? My confusion quickly dissolved after completing the two games. I could name almost all of my classmates in the room. After realizing how quickly I had learned something that usually takes me weeks to do, it dawned on me how unique my learning experience at gSchool will be.
This week was a whirlwind of installing, using new software and tinkering with bootstrap. A mental snag that I experienced (along with a few of my classmates) was needing to be okay with not fully understanding the depth or technical side of what we were doing. We needed to trust Jeff, the other T.A.’s, and the gSchool program that not fully understanding certain concepts and inner workings is not only okay but necessary for proper progression in learning to be a developer. We needed to progress with the reassurance of knowing we will understand soon. I needed to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and quickly learned to do so.
Friday afternoon we carpooled down to the Denver Galvanize building. We went a big tour of the Galvanize office spaces in Denver and met the other class who are four months into the Ruby class. We spent an hour pairing with them, asking them questions, and looking at their personal projects. It was a really cool experience and everyone in our class had a great time.
Everything about gSchool has exceeded my expectations this past week. I’m having a blast learning about all things that come with being a developer and am honored to be in a class with so many unique and passionate people.
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