Introduction

Hi, there 👋🏼 I'm Seniru, It's been a little while since I wrote an article. So I thought it would be a good idea to write this article describing how I started this journey as a developer and maybe it might also help someone who's trying to be a developer too.

Well without further ado let's begin the journey 😌

In search of something new

Well, first of all, I should say In the beginning I've heard the word "developer" here and there but I didn't really care about it that much. In fact, the only thing I knew about them was that they create software. That's all I knew about them.

At the beginning of this story, I should tell you that before getting into this path I wasn't much of a computer guy 😅, I was not really into computer stuff, I was an athlete. Once the COVID pandemic started rising up we had to be in our homes so that I couldn't keep up with my athletic stuff.

That's when the real magic started to happen in my life. At that time I had nothing to do other than just watching movies and playing computer games. So I looked up the things I could do with my time, then I came across this thing called "coding" ...

Discovery of a new world

Well, the more I looked, the more it became interesting. So I started learning "python". That was the first programming language I learned. It felt so amazing whenever I thought I was creating something. Then I spent a little time learning python and started developing some skills related to python.

That's when one of my friends introduced me to web development. I was so curious to know more about that side. I thought it would be amazing to create websites too. When this happened It was almost around the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022.

Into a new path

With the discovery of web development, I was so fascinated with that. So I started learning web development little by little. First, I started with HTML and a little bit of CSS and I made a ton of websites that weren't much beautiful. But now I can understand if I didn't create those tons of low-quality websites I wouldn't be here today and that's perfectly sure 😅.

This was also one of the first websites I created just using HTML and CSS and now when I look back I can be proud of myself for seeing how far I've come since the beginning.

Well, after getting a pretty good grasp on HTML and CSS, like everybody I moved towards javascript. It made the websites more interactive and even more, fun to create those websites. Along the way, I also didn't forget to learn about the frameworks such as bootstrap and jQuery. Then I started learning advanced CSS and tailwind CSS and I must say that tailwind is a lifesaver for a developer. That made the development so much easier.

With the help of that newly gained knowledge, I started creating more and more websites and had a lot of fun. During this period I discovered the website called frontend mentor which is a fantastic website to improve our skills in creating amazing and beautiful webpages.

Here are some challenges that I completed in the frontend mentor website

Pursuing the most promising avenue

After all of that, I decided to learn React.js. So without thinking twice about it I jumped right into learning that. And with my experience with react so far, I can tell that's another level of development. It's so much fun to work with react. With react components and hooks it makes the work so much easier.

And that's why I decided to choose React.js as my mainstream. It was life-changing 😉. I spent a lot of time mastering the skills of React and then I created a website called "emoginie" for fun. Actually, it has little to no real-world use but I had a lot of fun building that little website. As a user, you just have to input an emoji or a word that you want to duplicate and how many duplications you need. Then the website takes care of the rest 😅.

In a hurry...

After learning a lot of things about React.js I thought why not learn Next.js too?
Also, there was a new hackathon announced. So I thought it would be amazing to learn Next.js and build a project for the hackathon using that. It was August 2022 and it was the planetscale hackathon.

In the first two weeks of August, I had to work so hard because I needed a new project idea, and also I had to learn a new framework too. Yes, It was challenging but somehow I didn't give up. So Finally, I had a great idea, and also I was able to learn Next.js. I should say that since I had some experience with React.js it wasn't that difficult to learn Next.js within less than a week.

After all of that hard work, I could participate in the planetscale hackathon, my first hackathon ever creating a website called breeze, which you can use to save the books you read and keep records of which page you were on the last time and much more...

Conclusion

So, that was my journey in 2022. I made a lot of accomplishments during this year. It was really an incredible journey when I look back. I hope you liked it and maybe it might help someone. There were a lot of failed attempts during the run. If I'm being honest those were the best teachers of my life as a developer. Failure is basically a part of the journey.

All I have to say is, "Good things take time, so be patient and keep coding"😉.

Thank you!