Flatiron’s Final Stretch

After what feels like a very bittersweet year, my time at Flatiron School has finally come to a close. I’ve been looking forward to completing the Software Engineering program for so long that it’s hard to even recall how I thought I’d feel at this point. I can say at the very least there’s a curiosity as to how the ongoing pandemic impacted the overall experience. Would it have facilitated seeking help if I were actually on campus or saved any time overcoming challenges along the way? Maybe instead it actually worked to our cohorts advantage by preparing us for the unexpected allowing us to be more adaptable. After all, unpredictability has been the only consistent factor lately. Despite any possible outcomes, I know for a fact the only relevant thoughts worth the time of day are the ones that actually allow us to progress and in this case, it’s a matter of what I personally would’ve rather know and actually believed as I went through the program.

Prior to starting the curriculum, I knew that the only way to take on Flatiron properly would be with my fullest attention so despite the risks, I did just that and took the plunge. I saved up as much as possible, cut back living costs in any way I could, and quit my job as a Sous Chef as it was easy for it to consume my attention while guidelines constantly changed during the pandemic. For the record, I’d only ended up in the food industry because my first job was making pizzas at local spot in Brooklyn and from there it was just easier to continue with what I knew best if it meant securing some income sooner. I also have to admit that pushing through dinner rushes in a fast paced environment is a thrill of its own when you get used to it. However, unlike many students I’d know while attending college part-time, I had yet to find the occupation that really spoke out to me. Regardless of what my job was at the time, I got to know myself a little bit better and figured out what I enjoy doing most leading me to where I am today.

I’d always enjoyed learning new things whenever faced with a challenge prior to my enrollment at Flatiron. However as we moved through the initial phases, learning new syntax or frameworks, was very stressful starting off. I can’t say for sure if the stress more or less stemmed from knowing I enrolled putting everything on the table and the risk of failing was pressuring me more, or if I over-worried that not understanding a concept to its fullest was going to hurt me as it was the only way I felt secure learning new things in the past. I found myself frustrated to serious depths almost always wanting to pull out my hair, thinking to myself that I’m the only one having trouble understanding what was in front of me. I can say now that it was provoking an unhealthy mentality and it made coming back to my computer feel like a drag. What makes that particularly dangerous is the idea that you should love to code. I’ve learned though that this feeling was more than mutual between other students and I just needed to get out of that headspace by focusing on my successes rather than my roadblocks. That feeling of accomplishment is deserved more than I’d thought and shouldn’t have brushed it off as now “knowing what I should” but instead reciprocated it as another powerful tool under my belt and one step closer to becoming a Software Engineer. It’s something I’ve read or heard a million times too but actually believing it and putting it into practice is something to learn on its own.

I found that this way of thinking is more common than I perceived because the feeling of success always outweighs the challenges along the way of getting there. More recently, when faced with a bug or any problems, I don’t feel any type of way other than simply being curious as to how to fix it or what I could be missing. It’s actually almost anticipated as I only break my programs for the sake of implementing something new. The challenges I face along the way are just learning curves and better understanding foreign material along the way. To summarize, I wish I was able to better anticipate bugs and problems ahead of time as probably the most common part of the process because it felt more familiar to generalize it as failing to learn.

Something I couldn’t foresee in myself nor stress enough to others is the idea of it getting easier. Whether debugging existing code or learning new ideas, it all starts to feel very familiar where you don’t even realize how quickly you solve your own problems. It’s such a subtle growth but it’s absolutely worth acknowledging as it constantly motivates me to not be afraid of learning new material. I’ve found that the way I learn altogether is ultimately not that different from people working in the field and what you derive from documentation or online research, you learn to just apply it relative to the context of your code and becoming fascinated with the existing tools out there is far more common than trying to figure out how to use it. This in particular I commend Flatiron for because it’s as if the material provided is strategic with a goal to encourage learning concepts on your own as I’ve since learned is just a norm in the field of work. I once was told by a programmer that sometimes his job feels like “how fast I can google stuff” which I thought was funny because it’s true in the sense of it being a huge part of the job. What allows the learning to get easier in the end I’d say is the nature of the syntax your using alongside some foundational concepts that, once you know, things become more of habit rather than technical. Then you find the next thing you look up is more of holistic approach to a concept rather than a specific implementation.

The feeling of starting a new phase during Flatiron’s curriculum became very familiar but more importantly, is actually very similar to what I’ll be doing in the workplace. I’ve noticed my goals now focus on exploring new terrain and naturally comes with a fun sensation practicing new implementations and seeing what it has to offer. I feel very fortunate that the way I learned at Flatiron shifted gears to a whole new approach as altogether, I just needed to go easier on myself and be more patient, have faith in my learning becoming easier, and eventually know that what I do is a lot more enjoyable and more so common in the field of work despite the negative feelings I was undergoing at the time. What excites me most moving forward is actually believing and feeling that my abilities as a Software Engineer solely end where I choose for them to with no limit to what I can do or threshold for what I can add to my arsenal of skills. I can’t to see what’s next!