After the Bootcamp, Episode 2

When you are pushing forward, take a second to look back and see how far you have come.

Not exactly the same thing but you get the idea.

Today I went to an "Intro to React" meetup. This was my second time going to the meetup. The first time was in March of earlier this year. It was when I was just starting to learn coding on my own and wanted to see some of the cool things I'd heard about that could get me a job and get me PAID!

I sat down and watched as the instructors gave a very beginner-friendly introduction to React and how it differs from vanilla JS. And I was completely confused.

JSX?
Components?
Where's the HTML?
What's a render?

But two very positive things came from that meetup. One, I got to talk to one of the instructors who had gone to a dev bootcamp after working in service for a few years. She had nothing but positive things to say about her choice and was now working in a job she enjoyed. I also got to speak to one of the other attendees of the meetup who had just graduated from a dev bootcamp here in Las Vegas.

Not long after that I decided to join Punchcode and learn how to be a web developer.

Tonight I went back to that same meetup. The same two instructors were there, along with a lot of new faces eager to learn React.

This time the lesson was much simpler for me. This time I understood exactly what was going on even when the instructors used syntax that wasn't exactly the same as what I'd learned. I was even able to show off some of my own React projects and explain the concepts to the attendees.

Always take a step back to see how far you've come. And then, keep going forward!

I'm definitely thankful I went to that meetup, even though I had no idea what was being taught at the time. Because it put me on the path I needed to be on.