Looping Back(to Web Development)

First I just want to say thank you.

Recently I've had a great interaction with someone on one of the social media platforms I frequent, that led them to become my mentor. Sort of like a Jedi of coding, if you will, taking on a young(old) padawan :D

We've had two video chats so far (he's in another country) but he's taken time out of his busy schedule with work, family, life, to give me time. To help guide and teach me as I head towards a career as a dev, and I just wanted to give him a hearty thank you for all the advice and mainly just for giving your time. I won't let you down.

I also want to say thanks to another guy I've talked to on twitter a bunch. I'm not sure if he reads my posts, but he's answered a ton of questions I've had in the past, and continues to offer me support when I need it.

Which brings me to the title. I call it looping back because When I first started learning to code, I did what every person trying to learn how to code does. I jumped on Udemy. (I'm kidding, but seriously) I went for web development like probably 2958395835.3333 other people. Rounded to the nearest decimal point.

The point is, after having tried a few languages and frame works (and a lot of thinking and several good conversations) I realized my interests still lie in more of the visual aspects, although (obviously) having knowledge of backend won't hurt either.

So with that in mind, I picked up the web development basics again, and added React.

If you've been reading my posts, you know I was laid off a few weeks (I think?) ago. I decided a few days ago to spend 4 - 8 hours studying each day. It's not a hard number, obviously depending on what I have going on that day, but with all this free time in between family time and job applications I have a ton of spare time that I feel it would be a travesty to waste doing things that won't get me to the career I want. someone said that you can do anything you want, have anything you want, as long as you're willing to pay the price. For me, the price is time, and I'll gladly pay it.

The plan Part 1: Finish two courses
The courses:
Andrew Mead's Modern JavaScript Bootcamp
30% Complete
Andrew Mead's The Complete React Developer Course (w/ Hooks and Redux)
5% Complete
The plan Part 2: Build Small Projects
I don't have a hard list of things to build yet. I'm doing a couple apps in the javascript boot camp that I'll most likely try to convert to react when I'm finished.

The main point will though, will be to have an "end" point to the initial tutorials, and build stuff. That way instead of hopping from course to course, learning material to learning material, I will start using the skills I gain in order to solidify them and build solid portfolio projects that I can speak to.

Obviously both of these courses are project based, and have more than a few projects in them to sharpen the skills/learn how to put projects together.

I know I haven't posted much recently, so I'll go back to trying to post something maybe once a week as an update. Thanks for reading.