Breaking the law of physics to become a developer
Intriguing title, is it not? Let me tell you how I somehow managed to bend time and squeeze in extra hours during the days. Because that is the only explanation I have to how I’m able to be studying an intensive Frontend bootcamp, plus a career program, at the same time as I’m a full time mom of two small children.
It’s not easy, that much I can say. The only time I have for studying is basically in the evenings, after the kids have fallen asleep. But all humans needs to sleep for some stupid reason, so I also have to go to bed “not too late” because the baby is still waking up several times during the night and thinks 6 am is the perfect time to start the morning, to his parents great dismay. This give me about 2–3 hours a day to squeeze in everything I need to learn and create a new project each week. And somehow I managed to do just that (OK to be fair, some nights I have been staying up later). I have handed in my projects each week, and except from some minor changes they have all passed. There are times I struggle and I have been crying because time is just flying away and I have no idea how I’m suppose to manage this, but in the end it always works out. It’s frustrating to never have time to dive into the advanced goals and it feels like my classmates are so much ahead of me, but I’ve done the best I can within my timeframe and it’s not bad. There are times I’m really fighting with the imposter syndrome too, feeling like I’m only copying and “stealing” from others, and that it’s really not me doing the projects. But then I realize that you’re not suppose to be able to remember and learn everything from the very first time you ever heard or read about it. There are probably some people that can, but not if you’ve been sleep deprived for about 3 years. It is OK to go back and look at the videos again and again, or look at codes to see how others solved the problem or finding your answers on Google. Even if it’s simple things. It also reminds me of my room-mate from upper secondary school, a genius but hard-working straight-A student, who during the very last mathematic course we had frantically flipped through the formula collection to find out what a square is. Or used the calculator for very simple calculations. And she was the only one that got accepted into the veterinary program and went on to become a brilliant veterinary. It is OK not to know everything from the beginning.
So why did I even chose to make this journey and study a Frontend bootcamp to begin with? The thing is I actually love studying and creating, but I also suffers from not knowing what I want to do when I grow up. So I have been studying A LOT in a lot of different areas. I have a B.A in Game design and graphics, but I have also studied Film and TV-production, the Sea captain program, at art school, Natural science and animal care, English at a language school (I know you’re super impressed by my amazing English skills by now) and various of other courses.
I’ve always been interested in tech but for some reason standing right at the edge of it instead of diving in. So when Tjejer Kodar held a weekend beginners course in web design in Visby, I couldn’t help myself applying. And it was amazing! I got the same thrill from creating a web page as I get from doing animations or finish an illustration. I’m still creating but not necessarily with pen and paper. It felt so perfect! I later on joined Technigos evening course in JavaScript and made a chatbot. It was amazing! So I signed up for the bootcamp and here I am now!
When it comes to work I’ve been freelancing, had short-term contracts and seasonal jobs, and I’ve gotten tired of it. I want something stable but yet were I could continue on to develop my skills and knowledge, and I haven’t come across any tech or IT company that doesn’t want their employees to continue on studying and developing. So this is really feeling like the perfect route for me. my only regret is that didn’t realize earlier that this is what I’m supposed to do. But then I wouldn’t have my experiences of course.
So here I am! Halfway through the bootcamp and still managing to squeeze in more hours in the day than possible to do my projects, and still so excited to see what we will learn next week and soon dive into job-hunting as a developer! Hopefully 6 full-packed months of absolutely zero free time will be worth it in the end!
Side-note: I know this sounds like I’m doing everything by myself, but that’s not true. I have an amazing and supportive fiancé that’s doing his best to keep the household up. He takes care of the kids so I have time to attend the lectures and team meetings, always cooking dinner and takes the kids out on the weekends to give me some more time for studying. We have almost had no time for ourselves these last months and I hope we can make up for lost time and treat ourselves after all this.