As I reach my last week of curriculum at Flatiron, I'm trying to reflect on what I've learned, the projects I've made, and my own personal growth.

I started February 1st, 2021, with almost no coding knowledge. I did the prework, but I didn't fully understand what I was doing. I remember FaceTiming my friend on my first day because I was stuck on the second lab, and her husband (a Python dev) offered advice using 'print'. While I now know that print actually does work in Ruby, I was immediately overwhelmed because that's not what I was looking for. I figured I must be completely wrong and I was confused how to even start over.
My first day also didn't go according to plan, because I was using VSCode and not the IDE, and I didn't know VSCode doesn't default to AutoSave.

I can't believe that was less than five months ago.

I can't believe how confident I feel in things I didn't even know existed before.

I can't believe I've created things like this wonderfully silly DM Notebook, or my very first CLI project. And soon, I'm excited to add my final REACT project as the main piece of my portfolio:

(Created 6/16/21, five days before Project Week begins, a lot can happen)

This entire experience has been so phenomenal for me personally. I quit my job and cashed out my 401k and took an incredible, dangerous risk by investing in myself. I would be lying if I said I actually thought, back in February, I could make it all the way on time. I expected I would quit halfway through, or some environmental situation would come up, or I'd get kicked out after being held back too many times.

I've always struggled with recognizing my own value. But this bootcamp has made me challenge those intrusive thoughts that haunt me sometimes. I was able to answer that nagging feeling of "You're not actually understanding this, you're a fraud" with the knowledge that if this were true, my cohort lead wouldn't have let me get this far! I'm able to look at tangible evidence of the things I've created and the knowledge I have and my ability to help people and recognize the upward, exponential future I'm heading towards.

Participating in this has been so life changing in so many ways. I've made friends with people I never would've expected, I've learned a new way of thinking about things and looking at life, and I recognized a potential in myself I've been so hesitant to accept and appreciate.