This is the story of an uninspiring front-end developer. The article is quite long and will take about 6 minutes to read.
I have been interested in computers since I was young. In first grade, I had my first encounter with a computer. It was running Windows XP, but it was unfamiliar to me at the time. The computer, with its bulky monitor, was borrowed, so I was afraid to play around with it, fearing that something might go wrong. I was even cautious when changing the desktop wallpaper. A week later, the computer was returned. I felt empty inside. As a child, I didn't have any peers to play with, which probably contributed to my introverted nature. In second grade, my family got a computer that my mom's factory had discarded. It also had a bulky monitor and was an old Lenovo, back when it was still called Legend. That computer is no longer around, but it was my most important companion at the time. I remember the Windows 98 logo that I was familiar with, and the few G's on the C drive. Although there was no internet or games, I still had a lot of fun playing with it.
In fourth grade, I finally got my own computer. It could connect to the internet and play games. From then on, I became addicted to online games like my peers. But I still liked to tinker with various new things. I enjoyed playing with different software, and I thought it would be cool if I could create those software myself. However, I didn't take any action. It was too difficult for me to enter an unfamiliar field without anyone to guide me. I only knew how to tinker with simple and interesting things on my own. During that time, I accumulated a lot of basic knowledge, but I had no programming foundation.
Time passed, and I reached high school. I decided to learn a programming language. Finally, I convinced my parents to let me buy a book called "C Primer Plus". I read the book every day and gained some basic knowledge of the C language. However, C is a very basic language, and even after reading such a thick book, I still couldn't write any GUI programs. Unfortunately, I didn't continue with it and didn't explore any other programming languages. I regret not starting with front-end development back then, as it is something that can show results in just a few days. However, I was in my final year of high school and the pressure from school was accumulating, so I didn't feel like doing anything at home. During that time, I switched from being a Windows user to a Linux user and started criticizing Windows, even though I used to be a Windows fan. In that year, I accumulated a lot of knowledge about Linux and fell in love with it.
After the college entrance examination, my scores were not good enough to get into a top university, so I had to settle for a relatively lower-ranked one. But at least it was still a university. However, I missed the opportunity to buy a MacBook Pro. I could only afford a cheap Xiaomi notebook, but I had always wanted to use macOS, so I installed macOS High Sierra on it. I didn't do much during that summer vacation, but I familiarized myself with macOS. I have to admit that macOS has inherent advantages when it comes to software.
I've talked so much without getting to the point. That's basically the story of how I got into computers. After entering university, my journey truly began, and I became a front-end developer.
In my freshman year, the courses taught by the university were mostly for students with zero programming experience. Besides attending classes and slacking off, I was quite confused about what I should learn, as the courses taught by the university were not very useful. After playing around for almost a semester in my freshman year, I started learning Python. Python is a language that is extremely friendly to beginners, as it doesn't even require variable declaration. (But now I really dislike this language.) At that time, I wrote two scripts for English listening exercises - an automatic answering program and an automatic timer. They benefited the whole dormitory. Later, the school suddenly required us to use a certain app for running, so I spent three days figuring out the logic and wrote a script for it. Unfortunately, I haven't used it since then.
In the second semester, I gave up on Python and decided to enter a new field. That's when I started using Typecho to build a blog. But I couldn't find a satisfactory theme, so I decided to find one that was acceptable and modify it myself. However, at that time, I didn't know anything about CSS, so I learned it by searching and studying. My code was messy and I received criticism from others. That's how my journey in front-end development began. It started in April, a sacred month. During that month, I learned the basics of JS and ES6, but CSS is a long process. Even now, I can't say that I can write CSS well, but I can manage. I'm not good at design and writing styles, I focus on logic and structure every day.
That year, I spent almost 4-5 hours coding every day, sometimes even 8-9 hours. I pushed myself constantly, setting goals for each day, deciding what I wanted to learn today and what I wanted to do tomorrow.
This year was tiring but joyful, dull but interesting. For more about my year, you can visit Journey · 2019.
This year is also extraordinary. At the beginning of the year, I started working for a company as a front-end developer. At the beginning of the year, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and I was stuck at home. During that time, I learned many new things Things I Did While Staying at Home. At the same time, I finally completed my personal website, the one you are currently browsing. I don't know if I can call myself a front-end developer, I'm only aware of my limited abilities and I still need to work harder. Actually, I'm still on my way, on a long road to becoming a skilled front-end developer. I constantly push myself and try new things.
This year, I've been coding for almost 4-5 hours every day, sometimes even 8-9 hours. I constantly push myself, deciding what I need to accomplish each day, what I want to learn today, and what I want to do tomorrow.
This year has been tiring but happy, dull but interesting. For more about my year, you can visit Journey · 2019.
This year is also extraordinary. At the beginning of the year, I started working for a company as a front-end developer. At the beginning of the year, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and I was stuck at home. During that time, I learned many new things Things I Did While Staying at Home. At the same time, I finally completed my personal website, the one you are currently browsing. I don't know if I can call myself a front-end developer, I'm only aware of my limited abilities and I still need to work harder. Actually, I'm still on my way, on a long road to becoming a skilled front-end developer. I constantly push myself and try new things.
