A journey from Self doubts to Self Knowing

 

Want to be a Programmer?

     You have to change your life the entire way to be a programmer if you had no prior knowledge of programming languages, you feel like you were living a life in the dark while all your colleagues knew their way. Sometimes you just start to doubt yourself. You try making new friends who can help you out in solving problems but they are also too much busy with themselves.

 

 

Your One day Day one.

It's your first day at a university that is ranked high in teaching programming skills to its students, where you arrive with your laptop in your backpack for the first time in your life thinking you are going to be in a professional field now. Thinking it's the start of your new life and a new era.  A new day with a ray of new sunshine. You are determined and are headed to the building of your department that is THIS BIG! and the person you know there is only one, You! well, you don't know yourself either but that is completely fine at least you are a bit familiar with yourself.

 

 So, you take the lift to the fourth floor and enter the classroom that fascinates you at first sight. The instructor steps in, tells you how important this degree is for you, and explains the worth of the institute in society. And by the end of your first programming lecture, you are left THIS much motivated that you are now shouting in your head loudly that " YES! this is the field! Programming language is what is running in my veins, it ain't blood! I was meant to be a programmer and here I am, almost there!" 

At the end of your first day, you end up making "new friends". Many of them are from different areas of the country or from somewhere around the globe. But as the first week come to an end, you unconsciously end up cringing the same person you thought was going to be your "best friend forever". and believe me, that is just because of the difference in the regions they belong to, where they came from, or either it's you who is short-tempered. A bit of time later, these are the people you go to seek some help in your major subjects, though it sucks at that time.

 

Now, after the first week of learning programming (p.s; you have learned nothing yet) here comes your first assignment. Though it's only to write pseudocode and all your fellow mates are struggling to solve it and you sit with them, and finally start working on our assignment. Your facial expressions give the impression to the people around you that you have got all the work done in your head and the only game left is to write your thoughts on a piece of paper. But Who knows your English is weak too and you don't even know what is the meaning of pseudo, all you know is code, and the definition of code in your mind is some words you write on your computer that helps you earn some money in future :)

 

 Life seems so cruel these days that you start doubting or should I say cursing, your first day, when you were motivated that no one is any greater programmer than you and now you are in the phase of "please 'me' just pass this course, you need not to be perfect in it. We will become perfect with time later, but now please finish this mess up!  sometimes you are also drowned into the thoughts like have I chosen the right discipline or not, is this what I wanted to do for my entire life? After asking this question to yourself all the answers you get from your 'inner me' is "shut up bro", you never thought of your future in your entire life till now. All you did till today is to waste your time, every time, and nothing else, and yes when you didn't waste your time you did something that is now a complete disgrace to you. so now keep your voice low, as low till the ground."

 

 

Somehow looking here and there, googling things, and struggling a bit you turn out to know the meaning of pseudocode at the end of your first semester, which is defined as the raw collection of your thoughts about how you will write your code, but it is in simple English. Well, that is surely my personal definition so no need to judge if it is still wrong. :)

 

Passing the days, the people in university who first strengthened you in your weak days, start leaving the degree, and begin choosing any other discipline in any other university, which somehow makes you feel sad but also more disciplined at the same time. Disciplined in the sense that you are now familiar with yourself. You know what you are doing is worth doing. You start feeling blessed. 

 

At this moment in your life, you start comparing your dream, and passion of your life. You look back and see all the stars who enlightened your life. and if some stars were not able to brighten you up, at least they shined at their own pace so that your life looks pretty. like, there are some stars like the sun that give you light, and that light turns out to be super helpful to you. While in the same sky at night other tiny little stars twinkle, not able to lighten everything up but yet helping the sky capture the attention of all the world. People stare at the stars for hours and love sharing everything with them. 

How amazing John Green said,

 

"My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations."

 

Your life is a Pseudocode, just raw material, raw thoughts you have in your mind. Now your goal is to turn that pseudocode into real code that works. And once it works, Congratulations! you're an official programmer! Programmer of your life, your thoughts. The people around you, are all bugs, fix them.