A New Hat

I have never been very good at answering the "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question. First of all, who wants to grow up? Second of all, I guess I just don't believe in limiting myself to one activity. Even this blog, to which I am (perhaps?) returning after a long hiatus, would give you an indication of how I tend to bounce from pastime to pastime and idea to idea if you were to scroll back through the archives.

As such, a new (new) beginning. From April to July of this year, I attended a software development bootcamp, called Prime Digital Academy. In a word, it was awesome. I am now entitled to wear the hat of a software developer/engineer/whatever you want to call it, and I hope to obtain a job in the tech field as soon as possible. In the meantime, though, I am participating in a challenge, issued by one SB at Prime, to commit some bit of code, however minute, to Github every day. I've been at it for about a week, and while the record will show a few gaps because of site weirdness, I really have done code and saved code each day. A second part of the challenge involves blogging about my foray into software development, and so here we are. We shall see.

Trying to bring one's own brain up to speed is an interesting exercise. Here's where I'm at: I think I did pretty well at Prime. Not head of the class, maybe, but I feel pretty confident in my abilities at this point (if you know me, you know that's saying something). Graduation was nearly two weeks ago, and in that time I've found re-entry into "normal" life to be somewhat painful. I attach to people hard. I like having structure in my life. Last week I truly felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. This week I'm adjusting more, but still feeling pretty on edge. Trying to apply for jobs, trying to "keep learning" (more on this in a second), trying to figure out what my new routine is, knowing it'll ideally change when I join the ranks of the employed again.

"Learn more." A challenge in its own right, but one that is proving doubly difficult, post-Prime. It's hard to pick a direction. It's hard to know whether you're "doing it right". Mostly, it's hard to duplicate the Prime experience. That's certainly not what I should be trying to do, of course, but the structure is what drew me to the program in the first place. It's what sets Prime apart from just doing tutorials online. Re-enter SB, who has promised me direction, for which I am profoundly grateful. Going forward here, you can expect less background, and hopefully more "Here's what I'm doing today/this week" once I have some direction. Make no mistake, you'll still get blather (again, have you met me?)  but perhaps more constructive blather. In the meantime, onward. I haven't committed yet today...