To All of My Talented Sisters

#wecoded #womenintech #choosetochallenge

"Why shouldn't I give it a try?" I wonder, sitting in the living room four years ago.

Growing up, I always had huge dreams about my future, from being a superhero to becoming an astronaut. Hopefully, my parents never stopped me from dreaming big and never question any of my goals.

But around age 22, in the middle of my plan for becoming an astrophysicist at the physics faculty, I realized that this is not a job that makes me want to wake up every day and go back to work. I was feeling like that I had a plan for my life for years and now I am lost. I have always been the girl with the plan since I was 6 and now the same person didn't even know what should she do after graduation.

It was almost 4 years ago when my friend sent me a photo of a girl who was working as a developer and said "Look how successful she is!", that one picture made me wonder "Why shouldn't I give it a try?".

I have always been into technology. Ever since I've got my very first computer I couldn't get my hands off it. Even when I should study for my exams I rather read the book from the PDF instead of the physical book, just because then I didn't have to leave my computer. But programming was never something for me to think of.

The summer after my graduation I registered for a short frontend Bootcamp. Compared to the others in the same class I was one of the people with the least related background knowledge. I was scared and fragile. Compared to a person with a programming degree, I was lacking 4 years of studying. With all of that fears and doubts, I kept my mind open and gave all of my attention to the courses. Sometimes, I found myself opening the 20th browser tab to search for the meaning of another new concept just to be able to read an article to the end.

Nine months later I found my very first job as a Frontend developer with HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, and Bootstrap on my skillset in my resume. I remember promising my employer in the interview that I won't be the same person in two months due to all the new things that would learn. I stood by my words and in two years of working in that team, I never let them down with anything that was assigned to me.

Meanwhile, I start writing articles and making videos in my free time to share my knowledge as little as it was with the new fellow developers to help them have fewer struggles at the beginning of the road. With all the supports and encouragement that I've got from people online, there were always a few destructive comments, making fun of the simplicity of the topics or accusing me to get attention just because I am a girl, not that I am doing anything valuable. I have to confess that some of these comments dissipate my motivation for showing up and providing more content for a while. But then I've learned no matter how experienced and professional you are, there are always some people feeling insecure about your growth and try to feel better by making you feel insecure on some levels. The best reaction to these destructive behaviors is to keep moving on.

In the past four years, I've learned that you never know everything and you never have all the answers, even if you have all the degrees and experiences. I've learned that tools and frameworks can be learned in two months but what you need years of experience are the fundamentals that happen to seem less important and useful. I've learned that sometimes your soft skills, morals, and communications are more important factors to make you a valuable employee for a good company than the number of programming languages that you have mastered.

Last month I proudly had a talk at the JS World Conference, one of the conferences that I have always been dreaming about. And when it was happening it didn't seem like a dream anymore; It was reality, and it was achievable. I still have my doubts and fears when it comes to doing the things that I have never done, but from the bottom of my heart, I know that all the dreams can become reality, and then they won't seem impossible anymore. There is no such thing as a superhero because everyone can achieve anything, they just need to keep on trying and take a new step forward once in a while.

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