Well, here we are! I have finally made it to week 15 of my 15 week boot camp at Flatiron School. 22 weeks ago I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Learning full stack development(4 languages) in 12 weeks with 3 weeks for a final capstone project seemed impossible.

I had started my Javascript journey some time at the end of 2022, with a 4 hour intro to JS offered by another boot camp. I applied to Flatiron because it was 3 weeks longer than most boot camps, and it offered some help navigating the job search after completion. I was accepted in the spring of 2023 and so, by June, I was able to start the phase 0. Phase 0, or the pre-course, aims to get you going on JS before you start the official boot camp, and I struggled a bit to complete it. I kept doubting that I could figure it out. Foreign languages are hard!

I started phase 1 in the middle of September. I felt like some fundamentals were starting to click, but arrays and objects were tripping me up. I failed the first code challenge, but I figured I still had a week to figure it out. Then I failed the second code challenge, which meant I failed the phase.

I had been so close, too. All I needed was a parseInt(), but for the life of me a couldn't recall how it worked.
It should have looked something like this:

In retrospect I also realised that I had failed to subtract tickets sold from the capacity to get the remaining tickets. 🤦‍♀️
*read instructions carefully!

At Flatiron you are allowed 1 repeat. So, the process was started to move me into the next cohort. Although, thankfully, they don't have you repeat immediately. There was a cohort starting the very next week (Oct 2), but they like to stagger the repeat meaning I would join the cohort after the next, so Oct 30th was my new start date. That meant I had a whole month to get ready for round 2.

My sister, who is a Front-end SE herself, gifted me a Udemy course on how to become a Web Developer. I didn't get all the way through it, in fact I don't think I even touched the back-end portion, but the beginning of that course was all about JavaScript. I skipped through the HTML and CSS portions, planning to go back when I had the time(which I haven't had). I focused on just the JS stuff, and suddenly learning the same things I had just learned for 3+ weeks finally started to make sense. I finally understood what the heck a Modulo is!

When it came time to start on Oct 30th, JS made a lot more sense. Which in turn helped React(Phase 2) make sense.

Phase 3 at Flatiron is all about diving into the backed with Python. The delete and repeat approach with the labs, I learned in React, helped a lot with getting past the code challenges. Having JS under my belt, also, helped make Python a little less daunting, it was a lot about the changes in syntax. Of course, however, I continued to have a voice in my head that said it will never make sense. But that voice was never as loud as it was in week 1 of my first cohort.

Phase 4(Flask) zipped by in a blur, and now here I am standing at the end. That fog that I thought I would never see through had finally started to lift. I feel that I still have a ways to go in my learning, but at least now I have a good foundation. There will be a lot of continued studying on my own. Perhaps, I'll finally finish that Udemy course.

I'm super excited to present my capstone project. A social app where people can share their beloved collections of things they saved from their childhood, or even things that they got as adults that mean a lot to them.

My hope is that eventually it will have a forum on it, where users can post inquiries about finding a certain item. That portion came to mind as I had been thinking of how I could find something I've searched the internet for, for years, and ultimately how the idea for this app came to be.
*There was a VHS tape featuring episodes of the Chipmunks, that I LOVED as a child, to the point that it no longer plays properly. I have searched for years to find another copy. I thought if there had been a place where like minded people could post such searches it would be helpful. It also didn't help that searching the title of the video brought up another, more accessible, Chipmunks movie.

What is she rambling about?
The point I'm trying to make is if you are thinking of going to a coding boot camp, or maybe you have already started one and are feeling overwhelmed. Don't give up. It is hard work, but if you commit to trying you may surprise yourself. You could be standing with me at the finish line, wondering where did the last 3-4 months go?
Some words of wisdom that I repeated to myself:

And if your anxiety is trying to derail you:

Clear skies, clear skies!

*I did actually find the video back in December on eBay. Now I need to find a VCR that works!

Image Sources
The Fog and other personal images - by Anne Hastings

The following images may be subject to copyright
https://www.meracalculator.com/math/modulo.php
Disney - Finding Nemo, Encanto
The Barbie Movie