From A Student’s Perspective- Week 5
Future coders, I’m gonna get real with you for a minute. I’m five weeks in, and I’m experiencing some realizations that I think are important to share.
A leap of faith is exactly that – a jump into the deep end hoping you remember how to swim. I have foregone a paycheck by quitting my job, taken out a loan, and prepared myself to go back in time to the days of yesteryear where ramen made up 90% of my diet because hey, two for a dollar is a steal. I may have said goodbye to the corporate routine, but routine itself is still present, perhaps even moreso than before. I took a huge risk and invested money into this education, so I’ll be damned if my energy isn’t geared towards maximizing my ROI!
Since this continuing education program has begun, my schedule has become very redundant – wake up, go to school, go to the gym, cook dinner, study, sleep, repeat. And yes, there have been those moments when my head feels like it’s spinning because I find myself losing the time to maintain my jam-packed lifestyle, a balance of making time for myself, my health, my boyfriend, my girlfriends, and my extra curriculars. BUT, when it all comes down to it, it’s okay for this program and coding to be my life right now. All those things will still be there when it’s over, awaiting me with open arms. So, just know that there WILL be times when you question your decision. I promise you, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze.
Revelations aside, week 5 was an introduction to Ruby on Rails. Think of Rails as a container for all of your pages. Your HTML, CSS, Ruby, etc. all get stored inside of the Rails framework. Little by little the walls are coming down, and the once-foreign concept of building a website is slowly becoming a language I understand.