Abandoned Dreams
I’m listening to Asa’s song, The One That Never Comes while going through my old laptop as I had to return the office laptop upon my departure from my previous workplace. — This was when I started curating this piece.
I came across screenshots from my days in coding, and it took me down memory lane. I smiled sheepishly while thinking through my experience with coding when I wanted to be a web developer, a career that never happened.
I did not study computer science, in fact, up till the time I was writing this story, I never went for computer training. Thank God for the people who provided information for us on Google and also YouTube amongst others.
I have always been a fan of computers and technology itself before it became a trend, but I felt it was for special people or more intelligent people this was as far back as about 10 years ago — I blame those people from my secondary school days and society in general for making believe that error.😢
I started with learning HTML and CSS, I would spend money burning my midnight candle (data), and thankfully telecommunications like MTN and GLO provided an affordable midnight data plan for people like me who had gone through the university already and still want to continue learning even though we couldn’t afford it.
I became a night crawler, yes, I had to cultivate the habit of staying awake all through the night. Back then, there was never a night when I don’t have a cup of Nescafe just to stay awake, though sometimes I still sleep off from exhaustion, my precious body deserves some rest.
It was an interesting time I must say, I had setbacks, and was struggling to understand what was being taught. Thankfully, the resources I learned with were free, but at the same time, I assumed that I needed to be able to come up with codes from my head for whatever project/task I wanted to work on.
Another mistake I made while learning HTML and CSS, was that I never practiced or created something with my knowledge, well, I never knew. Although I wondered what I would have to use to convince people that I was indeed a web developer, at the same time, I convinced myself that I had not learned enough to build.
- Practice what you learn, no matter how little, as you proceed in your learning you will keep improving and learning better ways to practice. Don’t be like me.
Months after I started learning, I approached one of our tutors on a graphics design training(I got this gist that to be a great developer you should have basic knowledge of graphics and that was why I was there), to mentor me, and he asked me what I had practiced with. I had nothing to show. He was gracious enough to give me assignments to build on, and while I was able to find my way around some, I couldn’t carry them out properly.
- If you don’t have a track record of success, you do not need a mentor, you need a teacher/tutor.
I proceeded to signup for HNG training by Mark Essien, but couldn’t meet up due to the pressure then I signed up for StartNG. On StartNG, we got assignments to replicate pages of some popular websites amongst other assignments. I couldn’t meet up to qualify for the internship though I got the certificate of participation.
I was quite passionate about the tech world, so I continued learning. My laptop stopped working and I had to get another one. In all of this, I wasn’t working, as at the time I took the startng program, I was currently serving Nigeria (NYSC).
Service year ended, got some funds and a new laptop, two weeks after purchase, thieves broke into our home, and went away with my laptop. Sadly, he didn’t only go away with my laptop, I think he went away with my developer dream.
I had spent so much on data subscription, accessories for the old laptop, and purchasing the new laptop, including my willpower and grit. I was tired of putting in so much without evident results, and I thought of other ways to get into tech and that was what got me to where I am now. That was in 2020.
Two years later, I am in Tech, not as a web developer but as a content marketer/creator and a Project Manager. As much as I try to believe the thieves went away with my dreams of becoming a developer, they didn’t take the grit and resilience I developed during that season of my life.
Why did I say so?
- I can stay up at night developing content strategies, calendars, blogpost email campaigns, as well as SOPs and reports.
- I know I can always find answers to whatever question I have on the internet.
- I know when to take breaks especially when I am not making headways
- I can think critically and develop ideas that solve problems
The truth is when you meet a client or a recruiter and they ask for proof of your skills, they want to see what you have created with the skills you claim to have as well as some hidden factors like your level of creativity, your ability to solve problems, your intelligence and diligence as well as your work ethic. I know all this may not be sufficient to assess your capacity but it can serve as a good starting point.
Do I regret going through this route in my career? Absolutely not. In fact, I am proud of my journey so far and would gladly do it again though differently.
As I would always say, allow yourself to evolve, and allow other people to evolve around you. Evolving does not completely replace your experience, it simply provides another opportunity to accumulate new experience using previous knowledge.
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