Hello, I’m (becoming) a developer: Self-Discovery Series

I’ve started taking coding classes.

But I’m afraid. Is this just the next in a long line of potential career paths that will fizzle and die along with my invested time and money? Or will I keep the momentum I have for it now? Is it worth investing if I don’t know I’ll keep it up?

Honestly, I’m tired of these questions, because they’re the wrong ones.

In the first place, I’m a multipotentialite, so going after a million different interests is what comes naturally to me. I’d be doing myself a disservice to curtail my passion because of a lack of future certainty. (Which, hello, no one has.)

And in the second place, coding is an incredibly useful skill, so even if I only learn a little, I’m far better off than I was. It’s not like the time I got all into herbal medicine and spent money on a beginner’s class and got a certificate of completion which let me do…nothing. I mean, I had fun, but it wouldn’t be near as useful as basic programming skills in the job market.

But job relevance in only part of my interest. Today I put this picture up on my wall.

This is Ada Lovelace, considered to be the world’s first computer programmer. She’s a WOMAN. And has amazing fashion. I was hecka inspired when I found out about her.

Yes, I’m hoping to get a really good job with these skills. I’d like to be a front-end developer because it seems to be as creative as it is technical. Or a full stack developer, which just makes me think of pancakes.

Either way, whether in the future I am a programmer or whether this fizzles out in a few months, I’m adding programming to my list of hobbies and interests.

In the language of Ruby:

puts ‘Hello World!’