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It’s truly amazing the difference a few days can make during coding school.
At Flatiron School, the structure of the 15-week Full Stack Development course is this: there are 5 mods, and each mod is 3 weeks long.
During the first week of each mod, you are introduced to the topics you will need to become proficient on before the end of the mod. There are lessons every day throughout the week, sometimes 6 or 7 of them a day (hey, mod 2) and sometimes 3 or 4, depending on what the students request that day.
The second week starts code challenges: “not a test” as they will remind you, you still need to pass the code challenge in order to advance to the next mod. You get 5 chances to pass (1 a day), and are reviewed 1:1 by an instructor after each attempt. This review is a huge learning opportunity, and where I tend to make most of my growth. There are still lessons during this week, as well, so the longer it takes you to pass the code challenge, the more class time you miss. Luckily, with the current format of classes occurring on Zoom, most of the lessons are recorded and can be reviewed and studied at any time.
Assuming you have passed the code challenge, the third week begins projects, which is your opportunity to display the insane amount of knowledge you have gained during this mod. There are *some* lessons during this week, but it is mostly Study Halls with instructors, where the lesson is based on questions from the students. For the first 2 mods, you are partnered with someone in your cohort. For mods 3 through 5, you are creating solo projects.
This catches us up to my original thought: “It’s truly amazing the difference a few days can make during coding school.”
Mod 2 is maybe the hardest thing I have ever tried to do. You have now become proficient in Ruby, which doesn’t matter much because you find out that Rails changes everything from now on. Surprise! So now you must learn to be comfortable with Rails, learn how to create a database with Rails, learn how to create web pages with a combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as how to connect your Rails database (backend) with your HTML/JS/CSS files (frontend).
So, I had my first coding-school-related breakdown at the end of the first week of mod 2. And also again, during the second week… as well as at the end of that week. It was like all of the information caught up to me at once, and I just couldn’t sort through it all in my mind. I was left feeling perpetually overwhelmed, and like I had a bunch of pieces of a puzzle that just wouldn’t fit together, no matter how hard I tried. I failed my coding challenge twice, and the second one REALLY hurt because I really thought that I was going to pass. It was hard to accept that I had missed some important information and needed to continue studying. Luckily, that’s where the Love Bubble comes in.
At Flatiron School, community is everything. Every instructor genuinely wants you to succeed, and they also genuinely want to help you to get there. You have someone on the other end of a chat at virtually any time you need them, whether you’re looking for some help getting unstuck, a little bit of rubber-ducking, encouragement, or even just a safe place to vent about whatever you need to. This community is affectionately called “the Love Bubble” and they WANT you to be a part of it! No strings attached, even!
After getting back up and on the horse, I was able to spend a weekend doing exactly what I needed to to prepare for another go at my code challenge. This time I PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS! My instructor, Damon, even took the time to tell me that my code was pretty, and he explained what about it made it pretty. I understood everything he was saying, and felt comfortable explaining what I did to get to my solution. Right now, I feel like I could learn or do anything, from the top of a mountain in the north pole on a snowy Tuesday.
The love and support I got from the bubble is what got me through all of the negative self-talk I was doing, and put me back into a place where I felt good about moving forward. Turns out, I COULD fit all of those pieces together, I just needed to be patient with me, and give myself a little extra time to work through the issues I was having.
So, what’s your takeaway for the day?
- Things change! One day you will feel low, and the next, you have the ability to feel high. The best thing you can do is to learn from both feelings and keep moving forward, believing in yourself the whole way.
- Reach out to someone if you are stuck! There are so many people on our side at Flatiron, and they are all eager to help you get through it. There’s no use continuing going in the wrong direction down the rabbit hole, even if you are an introvert. Just reach out!!
- Trust the process. Drink the Koolaid. Be in the Love Bubble™.
