I just gave birth. How on earth am I going to take care of this child!?

The journey of learning JavaScript through athletic software engineering explained using the model of child care.

My baby is born!

In the fall semester of my freshman year of college, I took my first coding class and got knocked up by Computer Science. On August 20th, 2018 I gave birth to a Javascript baby.

How on earth am I supposed to take care of this child!?

Admittedly, despite the skills I had developed in previous classes and programming languages I had learned, I was especially intimidated by Javascript and was apprehensive about beginning my journey to learn how to use it. But I was forced just to start and just like any human child, it all started with:

console.log(“Hello World!”);

The Baby Manual

After making this first step, the entire process felt a lot less paralyzing. I started gaining momentum on FreeCodeCamp’s Basic Javascript curriculum— learning the new syntax and gaining confidence in the process. I realized that I could apply a lot of what I had learned in other Computer Science classes and programming languages. I felt like I was getting the hang of it and FreeCodeCamp was incredibly useful in taking me step by step through the syntax and functionality of the language. If you’re ever looking to learn or refresh your Javascript, I would highly recommend it! However, there were also moments where I would get frustrated at the syntax and that it was taking me so long to implement a solution. But by the end of the curriculum, I felt pretty confident in my Javascript and was ready to see what was next.

Baby Naming?

In my opinion, one of FreeCodeCamp’s shortcomings is that it does not teach you about using let and const instead of var.

In simpler terms, let can only be used as temporary variables within functions, const are variables that you cannot change and var lets you use variables that you define in one place anywhere else in the code. In alignment with the baby analogy, you would use let to set your kid’s nickname that you use exclusively for specific groups and const for their given birth name. But if you used var, you would be resetting their name all the time depending on who their with, confuse yourself, your child and maybe even traumatize them. In my opinion, the ambiguity and lack of clarity in var makes things more confusing later on because you can mix up the purpose and usage of the variables in your code. Conversely, using let and const force you to make a conscious decision about the scope and purpose of your variables as you are introducing them.

Motherhood

In the process of learning Javascript, I am using the Athletic Software Engineering method which kind of feels like:

<footer>Credits</footer>

Learning Javascript and all of the new technologies, methods and code happens incredibly quickly. The work is non-stop and in order to succeed and make good progress, you need to consistently put in a sizable amount of work. This learning method gives you the opportunity to learn so much in a shorter period of time. However, this also means that like a child, it doesn’t bend for your personal life. It’s okay to prioritize other things sometimes, but consistently putting your child last may stunt their growth and development and result in a child negligence suit. While this pressure and level of consistency can be overwhelming, if you stick with you Javascript child, it’s exciting to see where you both will be at the end of the semester and where they go in the world.