100DaysOfCode

Believing the issue to be so complex and seemingly run by magical elves, negative self talk can try to influence us to believe that we cannot accomplish such a feat. However, when the problem is broken down into its smallest components and each one is tackled piece by piece, the larger problem can become much more approachable. The first round of the 100 Days of Code challenge has completed, and it served the exact needs that I was looking for. Primarily, I was hoping for added motivation to keep pushing the needle forward each day and a community to work alongside in my learning path. I only missed a couple days (which I didn’t count) and some of them were intentional due to family commitments. It was important to maintain some boundaries, as it is really easy for me to fall deep into a project and lose track of several hours. ...

After completing the Front End Certificate on Free Code Camp, it was on to the back end, which has proven to be an interesting challenge. I have been working on using NodeJS and Express to build out routing and basic APIs. I worked through the learning courses on Free Code Camp which were a bit harder to grasp and less informative than their other lessons, but I was able to work through them. I created the first couple API microservices: a Timestamp microservice and a request header parser microservice. I started working through my url shortener project and have about half of it completed. It can receive a new url, tests that it is a valid url, and then creates a short ID which is saved to the database with the original url. I still need to build out retrieving the original url with the short url ID as well as build out the front end description. Entertainingly enough, I had a lot of fun building out the front end instructions for both API services and making them presentable and responsive. Front end continues to be my first love, but I am growing to appreciate the back end as well. ...

The concept and desire for instant or near-instant gratification has so permeated society that struggling with a problem can become more than arduous. I started the #100DaysOfCode challenge a little over a week ago. It has been going really well, and I have been coding for an average of 1-2 hours per day. I have been making great progress on the front-end projects with Free Code Camp, having completed the Pomodoro Timer and started the Tic Tac Toe game. At the current rate of completing projects I may finish the last two projects ahead of my October 1st mental deadline. What I would like to do on these check in posts is identify some of the accomplishments and challenges I faced as well as any moments of reflective inspiration. ...

The act of monitoring waypoints and milestones is important to recognize and celebrate. 131 days ago I started my journey to learn web development. What initially began as a tentative foray into investigating possible employment paths apart from my current career quickly evolved to a love of solving problems and an insatiable desire to learn more. I didn’t code every day, and there were a couple periods of barrenness, yet here I am—much farther along my development journey than when I first started. In the past 131 days I have gone from practically no coding experience to almost completing the front-end certification from Free Code Camp. I have created projects with more complex logic, including my first project in React, and continue to grow at a steady pace. ...