i have a head start

On March 1st, which marks the start of my unemployment, I am not starting from scratch. In fact, my quest to learn coding, began precisely on the evening of the 15th of December 2013. A week prior I had watched the code.org video which claims everyone should learn to code. Its message was bouncing around my head every night, slowly enveloping my brain with the idea that I myself, should learn to code. So on that fateful evening of the 15th, I took a long walk with my girlfriend and discussed for the hundreth time (sorry), the bleak outlook on life my Phd was giving me. But what separated this conversation from the others, was that suddenly, I presented the idea that had formed in my head. Learning to code. We talked about it for a while and before we got home, I had come to the conclusion that I was going to give coding a shot.

Back at our place I immediatly logged onto code.org and spent the next hour sending a licensed zombie around a maze. A short time later I found myself on codecademy.com and after a little research decided to give the Python course a try. I was hooked from the start. I had never seen programming as something accessible to me, something I could actually learn. And yet here I was, diving straight into it, typing actual code that the computer would interpret to do my bidding. It was exhilerating. Learning about basic concepts like if statements put me in awe - I was unraveling the underlying mechanism of all the games and programs I had been using for years - and I was learning use them myself.

As I continued on to learn Python, my infactuation with programming did not waver. I was still working from 9-6, but I gladly spent my evenings learning to code. I started getting really into it. I started researching the optimal way to learn coding. I spent my spare time on the learnprogramming subreddit, I read blogs and message boards, collecting a huge amount of resources in form of books, tutorials and online lectures in the process. My mind now started toying with the idea of actually becoming a professional programmer, and by christmas, I had pretty much decided that I wanted to give it shot. 

By January 7th, I had finished the first concrete project I had in mind, a simple application, performing a simple calculation, equipped with a simple GUI. By this time, I had already decided that I wanted to to expand this little program into a full fledged Android app. I felt comfortable enough with Python, so I decided that from now on, I would focus solely on Java. With thousands of libraries, the Eclipse IDE and a more verbose syntax, the initial learning curve was steep, but after a few days of settling in, I was transferring what I learned in Python to to Java. I now feel that my knowledge has exceeded beyond that of Python and although I do miss the simplicity of Python at times ('raw_input()' and dictionaries come to mind) I enjoy working with Java tremendously.

This is where I stand now, the bare basics of Java and OOP are under my belt and theres is still a month left to go before my official plan even starts. As of now, I am still working regular hours, although I find time to slip in a little coding or reading here and there. I can't wait to dedicate whole days, weeks and months to coding, and am excited about the potential for quick progression.