It wasn't all rosy at first. I started off with no knowledge at all. The only thing I knew back then was that coding is used for building websites, games, and hacking. All I had was an undying passion to become very good at coding. I found it cool and fun.
How it all started!!!
So I kicked off my journey. A lot of developers out there probably started with YouTube, bootcamps or even from documentation. But me? I was actually learning to code in school. My school had an extracurricular activity session, and coding was part of it. So the journey started there.
But at a point, I had to stop because I didn’t have a laptop back then 😭. In high school, I was really sad because I couldn’t do the one thing I loved since I lacked the tools for it. I spoke to my dad about it, and he told me he wasn't gonna get me a laptop because I'd get distracted from my studies… the passion I had for tech was greater than that for my studies, but I remembered vividly he promised to get me one if I were to do well in my upcoming WAEC examination. A few months later, exam day came, and I wrote my exams. Results were out and I passed, and my dad just as he promised got me a laptop.
Now I started my journey for real
I kicked off with HTML, the first language most big developers start with. I stayed on it for about a week — yes, just a week. Not the whole language though; I just picked out the major things I needed to know in HTML.
After I was done with that, I moved on to CSS and joined the FreeCodeCamp community. I gained a lot from this community — about 90% of what I know in CSS is thanks to FreeCodeCamp, so I definitely recommend @FreeCodeCamp to every beginner out there.
So I spent about 2–3 months learning CSS. Yeah, this one humbled me a bit. I wasn’t just watching tutorials; I was also building while learning.
Lesson I learnt
I feel this is a good time to pivot to what I’ve learnt. A lot of beginners believe, “If I just watch more tutorials, I’ll become cracked.” I used to think the same way too, but I learnt the hard way that learning to code without actually building is like learning to ride a bike but never pedaling. Real learning comes from building so build!
JavaScript phase
After struggling with CSS for a while, it was finally time to face the programming language that makes every developer rethink their choices — JavaScript.
After finishing CSS and becoming comfortable with it, I felt ready to move on to JavaScript. When I started learning it, I realized I was on a completely different ball game. I had moved from properties and elements to syntax and functionality.
The first few weeks were tough. I cried. I almost gave up. But one thing that kept me going was that undying passion I had from the start. I wanted to wait and see the end of it, and I did.
After 6 months of struggle and continuous building and improvement, I was finally confident in my JavaScript knowledge. Not perfect, but confident. I was confused on whether to move to React or not, so I sought advice from a friend and moved on to React.
Where I am now
Now I’ve moved on to React, and I’m still learning and growing with it. It feels different from everything I’ve done so far, but also exciting in its own way. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I can see real progress in my journey.
I’m still building, still learning, and still becoming the developer I want to be.
The Journey Continues🚀
