Codementor Featured Stars: Amanda’s Experience, Week 1
This is the start of Amanda’s coding journey as she pairs with a mentor to learn Python & Django. Amanda is participating in Codementor’s Featured Star program, where she will be coached by a dedicated mentor to bolster her understanding of programming concepts and become a better entrepreneur.
To say my first week as a Codementor mentee was a whirlwind is an understatement. Jess decided to kick things off with a lesson in setting up PyCharm. On top of that challenge, she started rattling off a bunch of jargon that sounded like a foreign language. I was in over my head. Jess and I chatted about how learning something new is hard but worthwhile. I decided then and there that I was going to dig in and give it my all.
As I’m going through this process, I’m also training to run my first 10K. I haven’t run in years. Nor have I ever run 6.24 miles straight and returning to the running world is difficult. On my first run it felt like my body and lungs weren’t working together. This was a lot like my first stab at the Django tutorial. Code was in the wrong place, entered twice and/or completely disorganized. By my second Codementor session, of week one, I had enough knowledge to understand Jess as she explained how to organize my code and how each part talked to another part to make it all work.
My first week looked something like this:
- Read the tutorial step, try to complete it.
- Get frustrated and want to give up.
- Walk away from the computer.
- Have an overwhelming desire to solve the step and get sucked back into my computer.
- Figure out what it was that was being asked in the first place.
- Do a happy dance which looked similar to a football touchdown celebration (bordering on getting a penalty flag for over celebration).
- Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
My first week was a success. Jess has successfully given me a foundation of knowledge and confidence to keep going. She truly is a code ninja! I can’t wait for week two!
