A few months ago (has it already been that long?? ugh), I decided to commit myself to the learning path of web development. You see, I’m 52 years old and in desperate need of a successful career. It seems pretty obvious at this point that the rich, dashing, loving, perfect person is not going to fall out of the sky, be swept off their feet by me, and dedicate themselves to taking care of me for the rest of my life. More’s the pity. BUT… here I am. I needed to find a career path I could start at this late in the game and still make good money and also ENJOY! Enter web development.
I used to build websites back in the late 90s (earrrrrly HTML days) and early 00s. I even had my own website design business. I had one client that was paid and regularly updated. It’s for a restaurant, and he still has the same site up. LOL. That was the last site I did any real work on, and that was when tables were used as the ultimate layout tool. Things in web design and building have changed A LOT since then. I knew that coming into this but felt sure I could “catch up” and become good enough in the field to get a job in short order. Well… turns out, it’s going to take quite a bit more time than I had initially planned. Web development has changed a lot more than I realized.
Enter the current bane of my existence: JavaScript. As one of the three main pillars in front end web development (the other two being HTML and CSS), JavaScript is an essential part of modern web development. I’ve been going through tutorials, listening to teachers (some NOT the best!), and trying to get that switch to FLIP in my head. It hasn’t happened yet. I understand the basic tenets of JavaScript and can often see and make sense of the code building blocks. Putting it all together, however, and knowing when and how to use what is another beast I have yet to vanquish.
I realize this is a lot of words, and I haven’t even mentioned how it relates to the title of this post yet. I promise; I’m getting there.
My mom has been incredible during this time of my life. She has supported me emotionally, financially, and sometimes physically, as I navigated my way through some major life changes over the past couple of years. I’ve been sharing my progress in web dev with her as much as I could. (She knows nothing about web development.) When it comes to JavaScript, it’s been especially difficult to explain to her what it is and why it’s difficult. Then yesterday, it hit me! JavaScript is like math using language. It’s like Algebra with words! Yes, I know… Algebra already has letters mixed in it all over the place. This is different.
Math was never my strong suit. Language was. The combination of these things in the weird way that IS JavaScript – no wonder I’m having a hard time understanding it!
However, I conquered Algebra once. I *will* conquer JavaScript, eventually. Hopefully sooner than later!
Now, time to wake up my precious puppy and take him outside for his lazy morning business.
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