Learning to swim again.

“Choose a safe spot where your feet can touch the sand and move as I showed you”, said my father to six-year-old me when we first went to the beach. It was just around 5:30 AM, and my father had already done a couple of warm-up laps along the shoreline. It took me a while to shake myself awake and trod down the gently sloped dune, shivering with each step as I waded into the chilly emerald water. Before my mind could conjure up more unpleasant thoughts, I quickly dunked my head under the water and started paddling with my feet and arms while my father remained nearby to offer assistance and words of encouragement. After a month of daily practice, my disliking of sea swimming gradually disappeared while I enjoyed every second at the beach.

Earlier this year, I have pushed aside any notion of hesitation to take the plunge into a career in professional Web Development. I have spent a considerable amount of time online for both work and entertainment without fully understanding the inner working of websites and databases. I often marveled at the websites and applications which were so well-designed to make my life easier. Over time, I became more curious about how to build such products. I chose the boot camp route because it is well-suited for my propensity to learn through hands-on approaches.

From my perspective, the learning curve is not much different from learning to swim. Boot camp projects are the “safe spots” where my “feet can touch the sand”. I can code in a constructive environment with supportive teachers (and classmates) never seem out of reach. There is still the occasional fleeting moment of panic when something didn’t work the way it’s supposed to or when my mind goes blank in the face of a complex problem.

Daily practicing can make all the difference. I learn to enjoy the workflow, I am in tune with the software development culture, I appreciate the prospect of working from home, and most of all, I am glad to be in a career with so much room for innovation. As someone who loves to solve practical problems and building things, I am slowly building my skills and filling my GitHub repositories with cool/ quirky projects.

My biggest motivation has always been my family, especially my spouse who sacrifices three months of her time to take care of our children so I can fully immerse myself in the accelerated learning path. She understands my love for technical problems and technology. Without her help, I could not have pursued a career in Web Development and explored my interests in Web3.

This is the first online blog that I have ever written as someone who often prefers to think and build. I am glad if anyone finds it helpful.