Why a software engineer?
It took a long time for me to make a decision. Probably I was thinking a lot but at the same time, it requires certain commitments once we dive into it. It was not an easy decision for me.
One of the biggest reasons I started was I believe this career shift to the web developer makes me happy. And yes, happiness is one of the most important keys in our life.
I was a person who didn’t know what I wanted to do. Well…this is not entirely true. I have done what I wanted to do such as “I want to travel, learn another languages, do yoga, make friends from different countries, etc”. A part of me accomplished these desires but in the deeper part of my mind, I felt lost and didn’t see my life was truly joyful. I didn’t like this feeling. I do not want to live the rest of my life with this feeling. Otherwise I would just get old, feel unsatisfied and die.
So I thought again and again and read tons of books. Some people say “to find true yourself, think about what you liked when you were kids”.
Interesting.
So I thought about it. “What kind of kids I was when I was about 8-15 years old??” Well, I always played outside. I was filled with energy. Maybe too much. I need to use my energy to keep calm myself (it is hard to imagine the me of today :)). I also liked gymnastics, health, paintings and math. I read a book about muscle when I was 10 years old. I walked 2.5 miles to go to a gymnastic club. My parents did not force me but I simply loved walking.
Hmm… maybe I like to become a personal fitness trainer? yoga teacher? nutritionist?? flight attendant? …. these are all wonderful jobs but I didn’t feel it. Then what??
One thing I remembered was I liked math drills. I don’t say I liked entire math but I particularly enjoyed math drills. Ha, it is interesting. Wait… I can see some positive personality and character there. I am very focused person and do things persistently. Probably I am not good at things first but I know things get better and better when I practice continuously. And I like that moment because I am in flow.
Yeah, when I think about my hobby - knitting, I was very awful knitter at the beginning. I even couldn’t see the pattern well because of different tension. Some parts had big holes and others very tight. Ugh..But I knew if I keep practicing, I improve my skills little by little and become a good knitter. I love this sequence and consistency, which makes me feel amazing when the project is finally completed.
It was one of the biggest realization to me. It is often easy to overlook how I feel and what I enjoy it for. Perhaps it is hard for you to find connections among math drills, knitting and coding. But it makes all the sense to me.
I was curious about coding when I wrote blogs using WordPress. Now I am ready to make a commitment for the software engineering bootcamp. It is challenging, coding is not easy at all. But I enjoy it so far.
It is just a beginning. I am excited to learn and see how this changes my life!