Growing up in predominately white town in the south of Vermont was not easy. At times lonely, my mind became struck with a sense of double consciousness, eating away at thoughts of “difference” from others. As time went on, nothing changed, I had cemented myself as the a “normal” black person in the community which I had grown up and thought nothing of it. My double consciousness progressed with my age and after years of internal conflict, it became my norm.
Looking back on my struggles as a young kid in Vermont has led me to realize everything happens for a reason. Now, with my knowledge of the past, I know I still have many years of learning ahead of me, but as Uncle Iroh (Avatar The Last Airbender) once said, “Good times become good memories, but bad times make good lessons”, and the lessons I learned from going to a university for two years, not liking it, and rethinking what I want out of life, has led me to where I am today at Flatiron School. But that’s not where everything turned from bad to good, the transition from university to coding boot-camp (Flatiron School), wasn’t and still is a struggle.
From university to boot-camp, there are some major academic practices, and social gap, that are different and take time to get use to. I’ve found boot-camp to promote building a growth mindset, much like athletes, musicians, or artists have when participating in their fields, while my experience with university was the opposite. With a short attention span, looking back, the structure of university schedules with a wider variety of course material over a shorter period of time, was much easier to keep my attention on track. The structure of any intensive program, like the boot-camp I’ve chosen, is much like the job it’s preparing you for, it is still difficult at times to keep my thoughts on the right track.
A similarity between university and boot-camp that both were great at is having supporting network of peers that promote a safe working environment while challenging one another academically. Socially, it is harder for me to connect on a deeper level with my peers as I am the youngest in class and haven’t experience some of the life changing events that some classmates might have. Ultimately, this has no effect on my learning but it has created a shift in my mindset about how I act. This is a lesson in itself I believe, as it will prepare me for what’s to come when entering the workforce and I am once again the youngest or newest person somewhere.The most important thing, to me about learning, is being in an environment where I feel comfortable with making mistakes, then asking clarifying questions so I can learn from what I did wrong.
Hopefully life will continue to challenge me with as making lessons out of bad times will provide me with the structure to progress when things turn good. While I’m at it, I’ll leave you with another quote from Uncle Iroh which has provoked major change in my life, “Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.”.
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