First online course

When I was 12 years old, I had the opportunity to take my first online IT course. This course was designed specifically for teenagers and was an introduction to programming. We had to learn JavaScript, Python and basic HTML&CSS.

They had a website where their students could open lessons and progress. I was shocked when I opened my first lesson. Because when I started listening to my teacher, things got really weird for me. There were so many colorful words and numbers in the code editor that I didn't understand at all. It was something really magical and new to me. At that time I thought programmers were strange creatures who just sat around and wrote the code. Unbelievable.

But things were going well, and step by step, with zero of understanding, I tried to understand how these things are work. I created my first telegram bot with JavaScript programming language and its libraries. I used my teacher's code to make the code correct. And I was really afraid of code errors. When I caught the error code for the first time, I again didn't understand at all what these things meant and every time I chatted in the group chat about the error and how to fix it.

Finally I finished the course and I got some kind of certificate, which was successfully lost ;D But it's an optional thing. The most important thing after the course was the experience. And even now it's still a valuable thing.

Frontend Development

Despite the strange experience that happened to me, I kept moving in the IT field. I decided to learn Frontend Development. I found the guy who explained all the basics of the HTML&CSS and started to build my first website. That was terrible frankly, but I already knew some basics. Then I left for a while. Then I came back to learn again. Then left again. That kind of fluctuation was a terrible time to learn. Every time I lost valuable experience and time that was needed for me.

Eventually I did some template web pages in HTML&CSS and they looked okay. I started to learn basics of the Bootstrap, semantics and some other important rules in the frontend development, but after that I lost interest and didn't want to continue grow up in this field.

But even now I have more stronger knowledge about frontend than before, because sometimes I need to use these tools to create basic templates (backend for instance).

First meeting with Python

I started learning Python when I was 13. I knew that Python was more complex than frontend (and it's a programming language, not hypertext markup), but this programming language is more flexible in different situations. From games to advanced backend applications.

It was the 7th grade and we were learning Python. At that time I had no idea how many power this "snake" had and I continued to skip the lessons. Until I faced with my first assignment. The teacher gave me a list of the problems and said that I had 40 minutes to complete them. Of course, I didn't even know how to solve the first problem. I rapidly tried to google it (which was allowed), but with no luck. I left the class with 0 points and a negative attitude.

When I got back to the home I decided to learn Python and show the teacher that I understood this programming language. I opened Gosha Dudar's lessons and started to learning. Somehow, but I learned the basics of the Python with only one evening. And I found this programming language interesting. It's super easy to read, understand and manage. After that motivational punch I understood that I had to discover this language.

On the next day I had to solve another problem set, but with my new knowledge I already knew how to find the solution.

The problem was solved and I was motivated to keep continue. I began to see the more lessons as I could and I wrote my first pet project. Clicker. Although the functionality was quite simple, I built it quickly. So you had to press "+" to start the clicker and "-" to stop the clicker on your keyboard. It was a console-based application, but it was a good start in the Python field.

War, Procrastination and the "Empty" Year

When the war in Ukraine started, I moved to the Moldova. It was a terrible time, so I decided to leave the Python for a while. Instead, I started to learn 3D modeling. I used Blender for it and finished an online course. Things went well, but I wanted to get back to home and with this thoughts I wasn't able to learn anything. Well, I tried to get my first freelance order, but decided to stay in the "comfort zone". Instead I played the computer games and still did nothing for my future. Complete procrastination.

Second and final meeting with Python

A year literally went by for nothing. So I decided to get back on the track and enrolled in an online course from Harvard (CS50 Introduction to Programming with Python). I thought that my Python knowledge was not perfect, so that's why I started learning Python more deeply.

First of all, it was really incredible course. Professor David J. Malan did all the best for me. He taught me all the Python from zero with advanced explanation. Moreover, after every lecture I had to solve problem sets and commit them to Git.

There were difficult parts, problems, but that was the completely new experience in the programming. Harvard brought me to the next level.

I finally finished my course and it took over a month. It was really worth it, and even now I don't regret starting. Besides, I got my certificate and now I have more valuable position in the IT market (not only experience and project solutions though).

Conclusion

After this success I continued to work on my skills. I started to learn about scraping, telegram bot creation, backend development with Flask and some other automation stuff. Also started to find some freelance orders and got my first paid order! But more on that soon…

The main thing that I would say to the beginner is DO NOT learn everything at once. Start by being professional in one way, rather than having several known ways to solve someone's problem. Build your way up gradually and mix theory with practice. Good luck!