I'm trying to learn how to code, and honestly? I'm just a big baby when it comes to this stuff. But that's okay—babies cry a little, learn to manage their emotions, start crawling, and eventually they walk.
Before diving into this journey, I thought coding was just... well, coding. But through this whole process, I've learned that coding is so much more. There are different programming languages, and each one is a tool for something different. It's not just "let me code something"—it's "what am I trying to do and what's the purpose behind it?"
Here's something that took me way too long to realize: I've always wanted to start a blog (we're talking 10 years ago), but I kept getting lost in website platforms, trying to change web designs and structure. I was more intrigued by that technical stuff than the actual writing itself. Don't get me wrong—I wrote plenty. I have journals upon journals. But I could never share them because I was so focused on this other aspect that I didn't understand.
If I had just taken a couple steps back and maybe had some direction, I'd probably be in a different place today. But I couldn't understand how everything worked, and I didn't have enough guidance.
Today, there are more people posting online who are better teachers, better at explaining things. I'm finally able to see the bigger picture: HTML is the structure of a website, CSS is the design, JavaScript makes it interactive. I don't know all these things yet, but I do know some of their purpose. I'm still learning these tools.
I've always been that person on WordPress, looking at the CSS, trying to figure out how to change stuff. Finally, I found someone who's helping me understand CSS better— SuperSimpleDev on YouTube. His videos are thorough and in-depth, and I'm learning a lot.
Of course, I'm still all over the place. I'll watch a video, get an idea, and think "oh, I want to try this!" Then I have all these different little projects going on at the same time. I get stuck, go back to the video, and realize "wow, if I had just finished this part, I would have known this better."
That's where I am now, and I'm trying my hardest to stay on course. I'm somebody who jumps around a lot, and I feel like there's a barrier. But I also believe that if I just keep going—instead of taking these long breaks and having to refresh my mind—it'll stick in my head longer.
It's like clearing cache on your computer. You clear everything out, then go back to your normal websites, but the cache is gone so everything takes longer to load. You've been there before, but you're starting over again. That's what keeps happening to me. I keep clearing out all the cache in my brain, then having to refresh on all the basic stuff.
I'm learning a little bit more every time, but then I'm having to refresh because I take so much time away from it. I'll stop for months with all these excuses—family, life, whatever. But at the end of the day, this is something I want to do, and this should apply to anything you want to do.
If you want to do something, you need to do it regardless of what's going on in your life, regardless of distractions, regardless of everything around you. You have to say, "Hey, this stuff's important, but this is really important to me." You have every right to say that.
Maybe I went on a tangent here, but if anybody reads this and they're a beginner—just go with it. Even if you spend just 5 minutes, constantly keep this material in your head. Keep going. If there are certain concepts you really need to focus on, take the time to focus on them. It gets better. I truly believe it gets better.
I keep having these small realizations, and when it comes to coding, you definitely want somewhat of a game plan. What do you want to do with it? There's a lot that can be done here—way more than I even know.
If you look at anything around you—your phone apps, Netflix, Instagram, online banking, video games, even the smart features in your car—that's all been made with code. Everything digital has been made with code. You just have to figure out what you want to do, then figure out the planning parts.
There's so much to it. It's pretty exciting but also intimidating at the same time. You've got to get over that intimidation. If you're intimidated by it, that makes it even more reason to go for it. Go for it because it's scary. Go for it because you don't want to be scared of it—you want to be able to conquer it.
I don't know if this is more of a "hype me up" post, but hopefully whoever reads this gets hyped up too. I feel like I'm a baby in this coding world, and that's okay. Babies cry a little, learn to manage their emotions, start crawling, and eventually they walk.
We all start somewhere.
Cover Photo by Ferenc Almasi on Unsplash
Top comments (0)