It’s been a couple of years since I started coding officially, at least. I have always been attracted to the backend side, digging and roughing it with Node.js and some of its framework, I never really worked on any realistic project, no clients either. This may be as a result of my impostor syndrome, or something I am not so sure that I know about. I have attempted to work on startups with my friends, but I ended up giving an excuse or the project just fold up and died a natural death.
The Hard Truth
Even though I really love the logics that goes on the backend, no doubt the Frontend has been fascinating to me all along, the aestheticism that goes on the Frontend all has me hooked up. It's just that my ego won’t let me. I picked up some React.js learning resources and later dropped them because I don’t “like” React.js it was so cumbersome I would say at the time, then I switched back to learning an alternative Svelte.js. A frontend framework that can be used to “Cybernetically enhanced web apps” according to Harris.
The Journey to becoming a Frontend Developer
Shortly after picking up one or two YouTube tutorials on Svelte.js. I was already building some practice projects with this interesting framework, then boom I got a call from a long-time friend asking he would like me to work on a project, a landing page of a business. At the time I had decided not to continue with just HTML and CSS, I wanted to be able to modularize my code and reuse it whenever I want, Svelte just like React.js provides that out of the box. I had initially built some websites Svelte.js. I wasn’t satisfied with the delivery at the time because SvelteJS has no officially recommended routing options like react-router is to ReactJS, I always opted for a library like Page.js, and Tinro for routing in Svelte.JS, and trust me it's been the best option so far, for me at least. Thank goodness for SvelteKit although, I am yet to try it out, I have a good feeling about it.
What’s up with Reactjs and why Reactjs?
Well, thank me for asking me these questions, one would think that after this wonderful adventure with Svelte. I should be comfortable using it in any other projects that I am going to be executing, but the reality is that even though I never really liked React.js for some personal reasons, LOL. I am just kidding, but the fact is I never really had any time dedicated to learning ReactJS, but I love JavaScript.
On a hot afternoon, representing my favorite club in the EA FIFA game, thrashing my opponents by some huge margin.
I received a call from my mentor “again”, this time he wanted me to work on a React.js project, a landing page for an App. Remember, I had no solid knowledge of React prior, the only concept I am familiar with was how to create a component, the idea of props in React was strange, and it was difficult to think about at the time. I had no choice but to say yes as I love to learn and why not?.
Taking on that project has been a life-changing adventure for me because it serves as a boost to my progress which had also landed me some various gigs that I can confidently add to my portfolio. The interesting part is that I learned on the job, not wasting time and days watching “useful tutorials” on YouTube and/or any tutorial websites out there. What has helped me was the fact that whenever I run into issues or there is any bug in my code, I referred back to Google, read some blog posts to help me get some ideas on how to fix the said issues, and at this point, I can confidently say that I am in love with React? In fact, I am having a second thought about going back to Svelte because of the following reasons:
The React.js Community is massive.
There are lots of resources out there to guide you in your learning.
What's the point?
This post is out of excitement, the way I feel about my progress right now and I just feel like letting my readers know what being a Software Developer is to me and understand that the journey so far has been a rough one, and they should understand that you can anything learning even on the job. I am unemployed, and I am currently not searching, as I am taking my time out to face my studies.
Au revoir et paix. 🤞