Closure

I finally have some closure on my last cybersecurity course today. I've finally successfully withdrawn. (The company emails were rather slow in getting back to me) I'm glad I took the course when I wanted to, otherwise I would probably still be wanting to try it out and put more effort into it.

I'm glad the course gave me enough information on the subject for me to realise that it is not something I want to pursue a career in. It's not something that would keep me interested long term.

Now...back to coding and getting stuck into it!

I took such a long break away from my SheCodes learning...but I'm back at it and getting stuck back into my Plus course! Now that I've realised that I want to go into programming and *not* cybersecurity, I feel like I have more direction :)

There’s no such thing as work-life balance for neurodivergent & chronically ill people.

This is because everything in my life requires work:

maintaining friendships

keeping up with my hygiene

managing bills

making money

remembering my basic needs

sleeping regularly

outputting creatively

All requires some aspect of work for me.

And when everything in your life requires work, your balance goes out the window.

If you're neurodivergent and overwhelmed — I see you.

If you're chronically ill and overwhelmed — I see you.

You're not dysfunctional.

You're not incapable.

You're doing your best.

Life is not a race. It doesn't matter if you're "behind for your age" or if stuff takes a long time for you to accomplish. Things will fall into place. Who cares ? There is no age police. Don't stress yourself.

I guess I got a little carried away with all my learning... Coding, Cybersecurity, Gaelic, Violin, Crochet.... something had to give. And it's Cybersecurity. At least...for now.

Training course ...

So I've been on this cybersecurity training course for a little while now and I'm just not feeling as buzzed as I was when I was just coding... so I'm gonna try and see if my training provider will let me switch to the coding programme instead.

Fingers crossed! Coding is just...more fun. And if I'm gonna be doing this as a career, i'm gonna need something that is going to keep me interested!

Training course ...

So I've been on this cybersecurity training course for a little while now and I'm just not feeling as buzzed as I was when I was just coding... so I'm gonna try and see if my training provider will let me switch to the coding programme instead.

Fingers crossed! Coding is just...more fun. And if I'm gonna be doing this as a career, i'm gonna need something that is going to keep me interested!

So, I made a little discord. A place to chill and study together. There are also some channels to discuss games, food and art and all those other things we like to do in our downtime when we're not coding! If you want to hop along and chill with us, we're over at: https://discord.gg/zTHWJ7bagG The vibe is generally very supportive and chill. It's been a while since I made a discord community, so I'm keen to get one up and running again for the sole purpose of creating a great environment where we can support what we're all doing in life ^^

I've been quiet lately...because I've had my head in my books studying for the CompTia A+ certification. I thought 'ahh I know enough about pc's that I don't need this basic qualification'... How wrong I was! I thought I had learned plenty when I was building a pc years ago, but a lot of that information is now outdated and I had no idea! It's crazy how quickly the tech industry updates things, but I am so glad it does because there are so many new innovations coming to us.

Things my brain needs to stop doing.

I see games on steam and think :

"Oh *name of good friend* would LOVE this..."

But then I remember I have no disposable income yet. ONE DAY, I will get my job in tech and have enough disposable income to randomly gift my friends games like I want to 😞 I must keep studying. I'll get there eventually, I will. I've just got to keep going.

I've had a few lessons on python...and I still really don't like it. I always feel like the code is missing something and the programme misses out labelling things like 'variables'. This might just be because I started with Javascript and creating those variables you would 'let *insert variable name here*' instead of just randomly writing a word and hoping it picks it up as a variable. I'm sure Python will grow on me in time but right now I'm still not convinced it's better than other languages 😅

Oh, to get good enough in coding to earn enough to live in a place with a kitchen like this! I can dream...and I DO! :D

Back to the learning for this year! I took a few weeks off at the end of 2023 to stop any burnout... I am so glad I did because now I'm nice and refreshed to start it back up again. I also managed to get accepted on a university course starting in September 2024! I'm now on a class for Python, front-end development with javascript and learning some cybersecurity things on the side (literally starting from scratch on that topic because I know nothing!) I've made sure to have other hobbies while I do this, so I have time to relax and process my thoughts without overloading myself. I like to crochet, read and play the violin in my downtime...what about you? What are your hobbies?

My motivation...

Since I last posted, I started a kickstarter Python course with CodeFirstGirls and I am continuing my learning with SheCodes, Codecademy and Cisco learning... Sometimes I have days when I take time off...which helps the brain re-set. But, if ever I wonder 'why' I continue to code...it's because I want a good job and I want to be able to earn enough to own a small animal rescue. Yes, I love coding and all the puzzles that come with it...but also, I want to be able to support myself enough to save the animals that need saving. It's what keeps me alive inside. It's what keeps me going...knowing I can do good. Until then, I'll keep cleaning beaches of the ghost netting I find and doing the little bits until I can do something *more*.

This is the day I tell myself to stop what I'm doing.

This is the day I make better choices for my health.

This is the day I focus on setting my goals.

This is the day I take my life back.

I miss my friends from 10 years ago.

hi. i had a very similar experince to trying to look through the code camp scams and everything online and not living near anything useful. if you can find an online real college thats what i did, granted its a community college and an associates but. other than that, don't sleep on utilizing chatgpt to teach you. thats how i learn all of my material. you can ask it questions or say "can you teach me about x", and if you dont like its response you can say things like "make that more simple" or "make that interactive". but helpful tip, all programming languages basically do the same things and work in very, very similar ways. if you just learn the fundamentals of programming you can just translate that to any language. in my opinion, the basics to learn are: the structures of programming (sequential, conditional, iterative), variables, datatypes (integer, string, float, etc)(in python those are it), conditional statements(these are those if-else things you see), iterative aka loops(do..while, for x in list, do until, etc), functions(keep em one purpose), passing data. i would say these are the fundamentals. every language does it (besides html bc thats not a programming language but just a mark up language), so once you know about the conditonal structure for example, just find out "how do i use this in x language". if you are learning python now, its a great language to learn about programming and you've probably realized by now that people most often use it in an object oriented way, but you don't have to and don't have to learn about classes or objects if you don't have the fundamentals down yet. i hope this helps and if you have any questions feel free to ask me

Oh I 100% agree with this advice. After looking for a long, long time, I realised the most legitimate courses were from 'real' colleges and education suppliers that offered 'brick n mortar' schooling as well as e-learning.

I'm definitely going to utilise the free resources online and then work towards building a profile and generally seeing what the jobs online look for and work towards that alongside the usual path of learning :)

Also, I love how supportive folk generally are in this area of learning. I knew it would be competitive, especially when it comes to getting a job in a year or so...but seeing folk lift each other up instead of put each other down is heart-warming on so many levels. It makes me think I've found my correct career path :)