We all probably know someone that was so stressed out, that they quit their [insert title] job. I sympathize with having too many responsibilities, code or not. Without getting too personal, I wanted to share my experience as a beginner and how it has affected my life.
Last fall, I was so stressed out by the demands of life I began to fall apart from the inside out. My health was deteriorating mentally and physically for a myriad of reasons, which I will spare you.
Before I quit my dead-end job, I started to fantasize about coding and how cool it would be how to "know how to do that." I started to pick at some courses online when I could find time. That was the beginning.
I quit my job after a "poor performance" review. Never in my life had I experienced something like that. Within 30 days of leaving I had surgery and was stuck on the couch for a month. As a busy-body, this was absolutely dreadful. No, I have a laptop, I can do things! And so began my hyper-focused journey on learning to code.
When I'm trying to comprehend the finer details of a new language, I'm not thinking about all of the 'problems' I think I have in my life. No, you can't be knee-deep in learning CSS animations and React, and thinking about your 900 problems at the same time.
Code has changed my inner dialogue and self-talk. Something no therapy could accomplish (at least for me). Why? Because all of those bad things don't take up that much space in your head when you are playing find-the-bug. And what do I have at the end of the day? A sense of accomplishment and understanding.
I have made new friends and connections because of learning code. It's been a really positive thing for me. You could argue that code saved my life. As a beginner I have a lot to learn. But I ain't goin' nowhere.
Top comments (4)
It baffles me how coding can change lives for the better when it's done with love and purpose. Coding is logical thinking (well, 90% is screaming "WHYYYYYYYY???" at the screen) and logical thinking can be used everywhere, even to calm our inner monsters.
Keep it up! 😊
When I came to this realization after some time, I was amazed. I was like wow, im focusing on something that has meaning, instead of all these external things I cannot control. And yes!!! Lots of whhhhhyyyy! LOL.
well said! Even on some of the most challenging days, we can usually make meaningful progress on some project, and have some sense of accomplishment and control
I see challenges as "what not to do in the future", its more constructive that way. To do it better next time. XD