A ⬆️Shift in Mentality

I’ve always been the type of person to goes all in when it comes to something I love to do. I remember growing up and my mom always telling me “You either do something right or don’t do it at all.” and that really resonated with me. Growing up my family had hardships, I’m sure as everyone’s family does but I found myself unable to channel those feeling into something positive. That was until my older brother started training at this MMA gym.

I recall walking in to a symphony of chaos, with loud music blasting, the sound of gloves smashing against the heavy bags, and everyone counting in unison like a thunderous roar. As they all endured the endless rounds of sparring and training, their comradery never wavered. Always willing to push each other to their limits and reach back to help anyone who fell behind.

I was instantly hooked. I trained for years before I won my national title and I fought tooth and nail for it. There was this confidence you would get going into a fighting knowing you didn’t cheat throughout your weight cut. Never leaving the gym until you were the last one out. Because you know your opponent was doing the same. If he even missed one day of training that could be the difference between loss and a win. This never ending work ethic was the only way to achieve victory.

Life goes on but that mentality of work ethic is something that was now engrained in me. I became old enough to work and I needed to help around the house so I picked up a job in fast food. On several nights I had to go back and help the cooks out during the rush when it got too hectic. That was when I realized I loved the insanity that is a kitchen.

As I started working in higher level kitchens I realized its all about the grind. Every moment had to be used wisely as there was only so much time and so much to do. Between bailing the lunch crew out of their rush, prepping for the night shift and helping everyone else get ready, we all had to juggle multiple tasks at the same time in order for everything to go smoothly.

One thing I always heard my chef say was “There’s no better job security than working in a kitchen or a morgue, because people have to eat and people have to die.” and once the pandemic came thousands of restaurants closed their doors. As I locked down in quarantine for several months and pondered my existence.

I couldn’t help to think about how much I loved video games growing up and how I would always talk about going into game development. Alas when I grew older I found out that you needed to have a college degree, knowing I could never make enough to go without putting myself in serious debt; I gave that dream up.

But these are different times! Through powers benounced to me I found Flatiron during a late night googling session and the very next day I called to set up my coding interview. I failed miserably, but that lit a fire inside me so I completed all the work they assigned me twice over and nailed the second. That work ethic started to kick in so I thought the answer to becoming a programmer would be like everything else in my life. That worked for me, up until the third week of bootcamp.

I found myself just staring at lines of code for hours unable to make my next move as I had no idea where to start. Finally one night I knew I just couldn’t do it anymore so I threw in the towel after about only an hour of studying. I felt terrible not putting in my hours but I decompressed and got a proper nights sleep. The next day I felt like a completely different person. As if everything I had learned up to that point finally clicked.

That was when I realized completing this bootcamp wasn’t about who put the most hours in or who finished the most labs. It’s about taking your time to write code the right way the first time. It’s about taking that break after class to regroup and collect your thoughts. It’s about helping others when you can because one day you’ll be in that exact same position.

This transition has been a tough one to make as I’ve essentially been trying to program my thought process but its a change I’m glad to make. I’ve fallen in love with the discussions we’ve had in class and it’s inspirational the amount of passion in our cohort. So all I can say is thank you for opportunity to make myself a more fulfilling life and hopefully add my contribution to the programming community as I delve into this world of software engineering.