For a long time I identified over my craft, which was art. Not that it isn’t my craft anymore, but it isn’t the main one anymore, I suppose. That is because I had to make a life-changing decision to change careers, which brought me onto my current path of becoming a developer.
I used to think art was the only thing that could be a fulfilling career. And while I already had skills in HTML and CSS, I made a necessary shift in mindset to take on coding as a new passion. When I seriously started learning to code, I was afraid I had left that part of myself behind.
But over time, I noticed something: what once made me draw for hours now makes me explore how things work, how problems can be solved, and how I enjoy pushing my own understanding further.
It’s the same curiosity, just a different tool set. I still miss the quiet flow of painting sometimes and the way I could express myself through art. But coding gave me a new kind of rhythm: one that rewards patience, precision, and investing time and energy into something challenging. I was able to connect with others and to discover that I can invest myself fully in a very different kind of work, which requires a completely new way of thinking, and uncover strengths I didn’t know I had.
I believe this change has been good for me, and I don’t dwell on the life I left behind. On the contrary, I look forward to my future as a developer and can work toward it with intention and focus.
Have you ever switched paths? How did it feel to embrace something completely new?
Top comments (3)
Thank you two for the comments! I am happy to see fellow artists-gone-dev here :)I would be curious to know how your experience is with this shift. Did you notice any patterns of what you struggle with versus what you do/understand more easily?
Thank you for writing this! I too switched careers recently from an artistic expression (I did minidocs and a lot of editing/post-production) to coding. I felt a sense of loss over the switch until I realized that I didn't leave art, art just changed it's form. <3
It's very comforting that I came across this post. I am an artist as well transitioning into tech. What i'm learning is that I might not be practising art full time but I will never stop being an artist, it is just that my creative expression is evolving. Glad to see others on this journey as well!