Coding for Life: My Journey into Full-Stack Development

Four months ago, I wouldn’t have dared look up “GitHub” on the internet

If you'd told me it was going to be central to my daily life, I might have laughed (or cried)!

But here we are, 128 days into my coding journey - and yes, I counted; having just completed an 80-day (excluding weekends, in theory), 16-week, all-consuming course... in full-stack development.

Before this, my “tech experience” was mostly limited to building FileMaker databases in my 20's and obsessing over well-organized spreadsheets.

HTML? CSS? I’d heard of them, but I didn’t really know what they meant.

Yeah... GitHub? Nope, wasn’t Googling that. (Let’s just say I was wary of anything with “hub” in the name. There are… other sites… with hubs.)

But something inside me knew it was time for a change. My old career was behind me, and I was looking at a blank canvas, wondering what I could create on it.

Turns out, the answer was code.

The Realities of Learning to Code Obsessively: No Weekends, No Tea Breaks

To say I just got stuck in would be an understatement. I’ve had maybe three real days off in the last four months. Forget tea breaks and weekends; it’s been pure coding, reading, debugging, and the kind of learning that makes you feel a little mad in the best way

Every bug, every frustration was proof that I was on a journey I could handle.

After all, computers don’t lie. They tell you exactly what’s wrong, and it’s up to you to fix it. No ambiguity, no emotional undertones - just pure, logical feedback.

I've missed a lot of social gatherings, put friendships on pause, and let other parts of life slide a bit.

But I knew what I was fighting for: the freedom to work on my terms, to build something from scratch, and to prove to myself that I could learn to code.

And here I am, with a site of my own making, breathing life into this project every day.

Why Code? Because Logic is Soothing

One of the most unexpected joys of coding is its reliability. Life can be messy, unpredictable, and full of emotional complexity.

But code? Code is just logic.

It’s refreshing to work in a world where, if you phrase things correctly, you'll get the result you asked for. The feedback loop is beautiful and clear: you try something, it works or it doesn’t, and you adjust. It’s comforting.

If you’re someone who finds meaning in structure - or if you’re like me, someone who has seen how the world around us doesn’t always provide that - coding offers a refuge.

There’s a deep satisfaction in explaining exactly what you want to the computer and getting back a precise response.

And on the days where everything goes wrong, I get a laugh from the error messages. Sure, they mean I did something wrong, but at least they’re blunt about it.

What’s Next? A Journey of My Own

The course may be over, but I’m still pushing forward.

I’m looking into freelancing platforms like Fiverr, exploring how I might start taking on projects for others.

I can’t tell you how empowering it feels to have built this site, to look at it and know that every line of code is mine, every quirk is something I crafted.

So yes, maybe someday I’ll help someone build their own ecommerce website, learning management system or social platform, but for now, I’m building a life and a business on my own terms. I know there will be more challenges and likely a few tears in my coffee. But I’m ready.

If you’re someone who’s walked a path less travelled, who’s willing to sacrifice comfort for the sake of building something meaningful, I’d love to connect.

This journey can feel solo, but it doesn’t have to be.

And if you’re curious about coding or creating something of your own - no matter how small - let’s chat. I might just be the person to help you get started.

Here’s to the next step. Thanks for coming along with me.

This post contains an affiliate link for Fiverr. You can start your account for free. I’m just starting to explore their platform, and I'll document it! Any purchase made through this link helps support my journey at no additional cost to you. Thank you x