Like Myself

It’s been a long time since I posted anything to this blog, so I doubt anyone is reading it (if they ever were). However, I woke up early this morning, and found myself re-reading old entries. Since my last post, I’ve received some criticism that made me afraid to return to writing, but I actually found myself proud of my old posts. Yes, they were a little cheesy, but one thing I learned as a social worker is that there’s a real place for cheesiness, especially when you mean it. And I did mean every word I wrote in those posts.
I could recap the last year, but instead I’ll just say that I have no regrets about the choices I made. While I loved the people I worked with in my past career, I believe I made the right choice for myself and for them to leave. I can support myself and others so much better now that I make choices to do work that makes me happy. While of course there are still time where work is tedious or people frustrate me, I love what I do. The moment when a complex problem becomes clear feels just as good as it did when I first learning. And I’ve found a new joy in taking complex and difficult to understand code, and re-writing it to be easier to update and fix.
Recently, bootcamps like the one I did have become more popular and accessible, so a lot of people ask me if they should do one. Rather than give advice, I usually ask: do you like to code? Because if you don’t enjoy coding, don’t do a bootcamp.
More importantly, only do it if you really want a job as a developer. If you don’t , find something you do love and find a way to balance your love of it with making money. That’s certainly not very easy, but it’s a lot easier than trying to make money doing something you hate. I am so much happier doing work that fits my personality than trying to make my personality fit my work. But the really hard part is that it means I have to show people my personality, and know what that is. And that’s terrifying.
It is funny though the little ways people surprise you when you tell the truth. A couple months ago, I went to coffee with one of the owners of my company, Social Driver. He asked me what I missed most about being a social worker. I told him about the white board I used to have in my office where I posted weekly inspirational quotes, and how much they meant to me and to some of my clients. The next day at our all staff meeting there was a package in the corner. During the time in our meeting that we call Victory Lap, where we acknowledge special effort over the last week, the owner mentioned me and said how much my story had touched him, and then presented me with a white board! I almost cried.
I recently posted this quote:

I feel like it sums up what I'm working on now.