Learning Time

Day 99 of writing every day.

I officially begin my paid leave from work today but instead of working or just vacationing, I’m filling it up with programming lessons to complete the course I enrolled in. This means instead of going to work, I’m going to an office building classroom. Although it’s filled with computers not too much different from work, the spacing, furniture, and hygiene is much better; no need to worry about banging your knees against the steel frame of a table or oddly positioned mouse and keyboards that suggest the equipment is more valuable than employees.

I completed the HTML CSS supplementary portion basically last time I was there on Saturday. I still have to finish up the FTP portion to understand how files move around on the internet so that data is protected and accessed through servers, and not directly from computer to computer. I’m looking forward to learning JavaScript and the real stuff I’ll need to know in order to become a frontend developer.

Who knows if that’s what I’ll end up choosing to do after I complete the course?

As I moved into the JavaScript portion, my head started jogging through memories of what I learned before on my own. JavaScript as a programming language is probably seen as moderately difficult to use. It’s old and has seen a lot of updates, but making things run and respond to data input just isn’t as simple as marking up text and setting up visual designs for a website.

The challenge feels refreshingly fun for me though. Unlike people, programs run according to how you programmed them to be, so you have to plan things out and find out where you made mistakes when things don’t run as designed. There’s an order to things that I think draws a lot of logical thinkers to math and other fields such as engineering, and to programming.

It feels like my time is being used much more productively than at work, but right now I’m not making any money. I’m only spending it to get knowledge that’s probably free and readily accessible on the internet, but at the same time I do get face-to-face interaction and hold myself accountable to a set learning schedule in an environment free from learning distractions.

In the long-run I think I’ll be better off than the past ten years financially even if I’ve yet to apply and interview for a new job.

Thanks for reading!