The similarities between coding and a teenage crush
How would you describe coding in four words? Creative and very useful? Something used to create? A language for computers? There are so many ways to describe it, but do you know what I would say? Like a teenage crush. You didn’t see that coming, did you? Well, it might sound weird and totally irrational, but I can actually motivate those words, so listen up!
When you look back at those teenage crushes you might have had, how would you describe them? Exciting, wonderful and something that could make you jump of joy one day, just to make you cry and feel unsure about everything the next day? Probably. Something that gave you butterflies every day and that made you feel you could conquer the world when everything went your way? Surely.
And then again, how would you describe coding? If you ask me, it would be pretty much the same. Exciting, wonderful, scary and something that gives you butterflies whenever you succeed. Like something that can make you excited like a kid at Christmas, but also make you cry and feel like you don’t know anything for sure. So, with that said, coding is very much like a teenage crush. It’s something you will always look back at with a warm feeling in your heart, that will help you grow as a person, and it will bring a lot of fun moments and days to celebrate.
As soon as you have entered the world of programming, you will face moments where you search for that feeling of being certain, without being able to find it. You will face times when it’s obvious that you’re on top of the world, and could create a fantastic piece of code art. The peaks will be higher than K2 and the valleys will be deeper than Mariana Trench. There are three things you can do in order to overcome these issues, at least the way I see it:
- Learn to enjoy the ride — You don’t have to know and understand everything from the beginning. The journey to knowledge can also be fun, although challenging.
- Find a team to join — It can be on social media, in meetups, at work or in your classroom. It doesn’t really matter where you find your team, or how big it is. The important thing is that you all feel like you can discuss anything, and that there are no stupid questions, just questions that can make you all feel more convinced.
- Practice, practice and practice — There is no such thing as too much practice. Take every chance you can to develop as a developer. Make Edabit and Codewars your best friends, and sign up for every digital event you can find within the code genre. There are Saturdays and Sundays for a reason, right? (and yes, I said that with a dose of sarcasm, but still, practice whenever you get a chance).
