baby steps

As part of my quest to enter the world of hats and hoods (the girl with the dragon tattoo), I officially graduated from my first coding class tonight. I always thought that in the age of millennials when graduation was not just the 12th grade but every little milestone like kindergarten was a bit "hokey" and potentially bred "narcissists" where everyone is a "winner".

For a few weeks, there were rumblings as to whether the students would invite others to our graduation ceremony as nobody wanted to be an outlier. I was surprised at the turnout as there were mixtures of significant others, parents and friends there to support the graduates. As part of our graduation ceremony, we had to present a project that we developed using concepts we learned in class.

My class consisted mostly of 20 somethings looking to change their careers as administrative personnel and/or an opportunity in a market that is dominated by men. As it was a part-time program, we flitted in and out and primarily got to know each other from extracurricular activities like coding brunch or pairing partners. It was fascinating today to see the varied programs that my classmates developed, and more interestingly, the stories behind their projects and/or how some never thought they would have the opportunity to be a software engineer.

While I initially chose Hackbright Academy as I believed in their mission (reclaiming the cunt (part 5)), having a taste of this world, I am torn about continuing with an intense bootcamp of all women vs. a co-ed bootcamp program. Since much of the coding world is "sharing" to enrich humanity, I soon realize that there is a lot to be learned from people who think "differently," whether from different walks of life and/or gender brain make-up. Diversity to me is like sum of its parts (concept of holism).

Regardless of the path I eventually choose, I am grateful to be part of a class of women who chose to take the first step to shifting the future, as well as an organization that enables women to feel safe to do so. I know that we will always have a support network with each other for the rest of our lives. While it was tough initially with work travel schedule and deadlines and using my brain again in such a technical way, I have discovered that I have found a passion that has caused me to just code for hours and completely lose track of time. As the saying goes..."time flies when you're having fun".

In the end, I enjoyed the graduation ceremony (rather than getting hooded, as red hoodies are saved for bootcamp graduates, we got t-shirts to commemorate the occasion) and in its simplicity of a prep class, it was such a great accomplishment to advance from crawling to walking...and like a dragon, it will be so exciting to finally get my wings and fly!!