Nevertheless, erica coded

erica (she/her) — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 01:11:19 +0000

Well, it has been a wild year.

I did not expect to live through a global pandemic during my first year as a developer. I don't think anyone did.

Luckily, I have been able to continue working throughout. Adapting to working from home while still pretty green was an extremely challenging experience. I didn't
have the same level of communication with the team as I usually would, which made me realize how much I had started to rely on them. There were situations where it
felt like I had forgotten how to google. While there were some pretty specific situations, there were also bugs that were hard. I had no clue where to begin, but
I knew I had to start somewhere.

As usual, something happened that happens every time one remembers how to chase bugs.

I started going down rabbit holes. And it was super fun. There were times I got off track, and I ended up picking up some stray knowledge I wouldn't have found otherwise.

Beyond that, there's a lot of reflection I could write here on the past year, but lately I've been finding that my time is best spent looking forward.

Here are some other great #shecoded articles I'd like to highlight.

The history of women in tech: changing the master narrative

Amanda Fawcett ・ Mar 4 '20

#wecoded #womenintech #culture

SheCoded: A year of silence and reflection

Sylwia Vargas ・ Mar 9 '21

#wecoded

Nevertheless, she coded: Dalia Abu Ghoush

Joan Awinja Ingari for Developer Circle: Mombasa ・ Mar 8 '21

#wecoded

Today, I almost forgot why I love programming.

erica (she/her) — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 03:06:44 +0000

I'm not sure if I can still call myself a recent coding bootcamp graduate - I've hit 9 months of code, and today I had a burnout baby. I had a lengthy stare at the screen, had an existential crisis in the bathroom, and realized that coding just isn't for me.

Then I got my shit together.

This task had to be done. I couldn't just not do my job and tell my boss "Sorry, that's too hard." This may be fine for a tricky bug fix, but blowing off documentation is a good way to go from junior developer to former developer.

I'm not saying I was ready to throw in the towel over documentation.

I enjoy writing. That's how this post happened.

I don't enjoy things I can't figure out.

A majority of my task was taking screenshots of the happy path. Problem was, I didn't know the full happy path. A large part of it was setting up [kinda] complex charts and graphs using a library that we'd been implementing. I was familiar with the UI well enough, but I didn't understand how to use any of the tools.

I wasn't frustrated with code. I was frustrated with graphs.

I got myself caffeinated, pulled up my bootcamp straps, and Googled my soul out. I tried different data and different settings and different filters until it worked. I was spinning in my chair.

This is when I remembered that I loved writing code - if I loved graphs, I would have gone into accounting. Development is hard. We all know it. However, we also all live for the rush of "I did it - it works!".

That's why nevertheless, I code.

DEV Community: erica (she/her)