The Coronavirus is indeed infinitesimal in size. But, time and again, it proves to us that its potency is not to be undermined; the seemingly invisible enemy apparently brought the entire world to its knees – effortlessly at that. COVID-19, the pandemic caused by our vicious enemy introduced us to several concepts: zoonosis, quarantine, isolation, lockdown etc. The last particularly brought many activities to a standstill and initiated drastic changes in many – if not all – lives.

Here in Nigeria, the lockdown period was initially scheduled to last two weeks. Like every other person, I thought everything would be back to its shape thereafter and I would resume and be reunited with my beloved Chemistry. Little did I know that I would be indoors for much longer as two weeks have now metamorphosed into months.

The first month swept by and I wasn’t in any way pleased with how I spent it. I was simply eating, sleeping, living ‘La vida loca’ and doing some inconsistent study. One night while reflecting on how Spent a month at home, I realized I wanted to get out of the lockdown with unlocked potentials. At this point, let me quickly chip it in that I’ve been an IT fanatic right from when I was a child.

As a Nigerian student, just like me, I bet you would have been told for the umpteenth time that your certificate is simply "not enough". Hence, the need to build more capacities that would enable me to stay afloat in our ever changing world coupled with my keen interest in the tech sphere informed my decision to learn a skill – a tech skill, especially now that I have the time and other resources. I laid my hands on a couple of specialties: graphics design, HTML, animations and ui/ux. I eventually decided to stick with HTML (front end) as I could easily relate with it.

THE JOURNEY I had always thought that before one could learn HTML, one would need to have a degree in Computer Science. Fortunately, a crash YouTube course by Brad Travesy was all I needed to start my learning journey. This one hour video really remodeled my mindset as the concepts discussed were quite easy to comprehend.

I perused the video and practised what I learnt within a week. I would like to add that the YouTube crash course laid a strong foundation for whatever it was I was going to deal with on free code camp.

According to a popular maxim, “nothing good comes easy”. Needless to say, my journey from HTML to Freecode Camp was not entirely hitch-free. For starters, I live in a ‘developing’ country where constant electricity is still a fantasy. This affected my learning speed as I could not practise every day but only four or five times per week. Sometimes, I would not have mobile data to access FreeCode camp. Other times, I just lacked the motivation to pick up my PC to work. Amidst these odds however, I managed to complete the trainings on HTML and CSS, whch is the foundation of Front-End. Image for postImage for post

“Anything is possible when you have the right people around you to support you “- Misty Copeland. My journey wouldn’t have started or continued without my friends, who, thus far have been my constant sources of motivation and the shoulders to lean on. I am really lucky to be surrounded by these beautiful souls: Samuel, Demilade, Alex, Taiwo and Tobi.

Indeed, my journey as a Front-End developer has just begun and I can’t be more excited to continue learning. For now, I’m happy about the progress I have made so far and I believe it’s worth sharing.