Okay, here goes…
My name is Alana Moonlyte James, and I’m addicted to coding.
Whew. That felt good to get out in the open, you know. Let out all the secrets we keep inside that eat us alive and leave our stomachs full of odd, quick snacks that are no good for us but are useful when you spend hours in front of a computer screen, typing.
Alright, seriously, I have come to love code.
A long, long time ago in a bedroom far, far away, a woman of moderate intelligence thought that coding was mathematics. Yes, I thought coding was math. Don’t judge me.
Since I’m not a big fan of math, I avoided programming, hacking, and coding altogether because of this irrational thought. I’ve always worshiped my PC overlord but I was too emotionally unstable in the past to discover the engineering side of my false idol. Recently, I’ve been strategically placed in a situation where the discovery of coding was born.
Want to hear the story? It’s great but not long and it doesn’t come with pictures.
Lana was distraught. She had three days to find a place to live or she would be out on the streets, literally. A little panicked, she called her friend to see if he had room in his apartment for one more person. He did. Hurrah. Frantic, she scrambled some clothes together and packed a heavy bag. As she scrambled about the tiny, empty apartment gathering her belongings, her phone rang several times but she was too frantic to answer. Finally, a bit less scatterbrained, she answered the phone…it was Susan.
“Wow. So, you are alive? Great. What’s going on?” she sounded weirdly calm, unlike her,
“I am. And I’m packing. Gotta leave in three days. Why the rampant call spree? Emergency or impatience?” Susan chuckled,
“Impatience. I wanted to ask you something. Why didn’t you take programming in college? I thought you liked computers?” Lana was slightly blind-sighted by this question, it came from Susan Nowhere.
“I do love computers but I hate math. Why this question Ms. Nowhere?” Lana chuckled, “I didn’t really like the idea of learning more advanced math when basic math eludes me. So I didn’t even look into it.”
“But…it’s not math, Lana.” after she said this, she laughed…hard. Susan laughed so hard, that Lana heard her put the phone down and literally fall to her floor in fits of laughter. After her tirade of rude giggles, she picked the phone back up and said, “Ahem, it’s not math. Has nothing to do with math. Unless you want it to. Here..”
Susan sent her a link to her phone and Lana reluctantly clicked the link to reveal the level of stupid she had accomplished with so little effort. Lana began to completely understand why Susan laughed so hard.
Lana: Super Genius
Right, so…coding isn’t math, it’s a language. A cotton-picking language. Like, English. Or…Spanish. But for computers and the web. I know that now, I accept it and I take full responsibility for the time lost not learning all I can.
Once I bypassed this milestone I dove right in. The more I learned, the more the addiction took hold. I was astonished with how quickly I picked up on it and began to wonder if I had discovered it sooner, where would I be now? It’s easy for genius minds to pick this stuff up and make millions because their devotion, determination, and energy drives them to light-speed forces. But over here in the land of melancholy, lazy, under-achievers with debilitating mental disorders, we live in the shadows and succeed on our desk chairs in the safety of our homes.
Obstacles in place, I began my journey. Learning is the easy part. It’s putting what I learned into action that has me stumped.
How do I put it all together?
How do I visualize the look of something with just text and numbers and symbols?
Where do I go from the Learning Curve?
How does a shy, introverted, hermit develop the connections to network her growing skills?
I haven’t found the answer to any of these questions but if you have some suggestions let me know what the deal is…I’m all ears. If you don’t know anything about coding and just want to give encouraging words…please, feel free. I always enjoy an encouraging word or two.
Signing off: Moonlyte out
Moonlyte Cafe 
(Sorry about the previous post. Something screwed up when i tried to post it. Please just remove it.)
It was right to listen to your friend and at least give it a try. It even reminds me on when i became interested in coding. A friend told me in 2005 how she became a software developer after she was working as a vender in a bakeshop. She assigned for study when she was in her mid 40’s and got a job as a programmer at the ESA, the european counterpart of the NASA a few years later. It couraged me to change my life too! I was in my mid 20’s and worked as a chef in a kitchen but the work became boring somehow. I felt way to unchallenged and decided to teach myself and quit my job as a chef in 2007.
It was a rough time though because i’m living in germany and most companies refuse hiring people without a degree. So i was also freelancing as a media designer for a while and tried to learn as much about coding as possible. I moved back to Berlin where i grew up as teenager and found a job at a media academy for the next 2 years. It was very interesting to work there as they did a lot of cool projects including video productions. After that i had many other interesting jobs, assigned study as a games programmer in 2014 and never really regret changing my profession. I also encouraged some of my friends to have a look at coding, few of them even did and are able to code now. Most of the people i know though are rather distanced about programming just like we were.
Just like you, I also wondered how life would have been if i picked it up sooner but i still feel like i wasn’t ready for a change nor ready for coding when i was a teenager or at the early 20’s. I had a PC back in the days but all i used it for was playing some games or playing music with.
You’re asking how to put it all together. Well, i can’t answer that question as it depends on your level of knowledge. There are many things to learn about programming and all the different kind of languages but one day you will just realize how it all fits together. Just be patient, don’t give up please! It’s really worth it, if you enjoy what you’re doing and having at least a little bit of fun with. And i can tell, it can be a lot of fun and satisfying to emprove life by coding.
Oh and btw, thank you for your moonlyte cafe blog! I really enjoyed reading your posts as it reminds me on some me own journey and straits.
Patrick
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Thank you, Patrick!! That was very helpful. I’m not giving up! I’m in too deep! I just get frustrated and a little hopeless when things don’t happen instantly. But you’re right, I must be patient. Thanks for reading!
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