Captain's Log

by on under web
2 minute read

This is my wordpress site. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. This site will serve as a mechanism to track my experiences as I enter the world of computer programming. I am a 26 year old living in Washington, DC (via California [Pomona College] via Tennessee [born and raised]). I just left a job in management consulting to attend an accelerated coding school in the district. The course is offered by General Assembly and focuses on full-stack Web Development, primarily through JavaScript.

I took a course in HTML/CSS in high school, where I learned how to build the bones of a website. My peak achievement was creating a site that listed my top 5 video games, in order. Each had some sort of graphic and overview associated with it. Nothing fancy. But I do remember being unreasonably proud of my site – mainly because I was certain that Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the greatest game ever made, and that I felt others needed to be certain of it as well. The two spot, again clearly, belonged to Halo: Combat Evolved.

I don’t remember 3 through 5. But high school wasn’t about coding for me. It was about fast friends, stage play rehearsals, grueling frisbee tournaments, late night conversations, and certain truths. College was much of the same, except not as many stage plays, more late nights, and fewer certain truths. I took a course in Java that was fun but didn’t quite snag me. Coding was dormant, or never really awake, until I was in the working world for a few years and found myself coming home late, and yet still excited about working through the next item in my “learn coding” to-do list. JavaScript and HTML/CSS were such immediately fascinating avenues in a way I didn’t properly appreciate when I was first introduced to them. It took me a while to poke around enough, and speak to enough people in the field, including those who had made the jump through an accelerated development program, before I was ready to jump myself. Let’s see where this goes.

If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it."

- Tony Morrison
learning