how did i get here?

A little background on why I left architecture, how I got into coding, and why I want to be in tech. Brace yourselves, it’s a bit of a doozy.

here, i’m waiting to meet my friend on the train to greenwich.

...on picking architecture, feeling lost, doing a master’s, and giving it all up.

So, I graduated in 2019 with a B.A. in Architecture & Community Design from the University of San Francisco. I’d never really felt especially passionate about architecture and had applied to every college for a different major. I was so close to being an international business major at Quinnipiac, but ultimately, I think I made the best choice from the options that I had.

“I was so stressed the whole time about keeping a roof over my head and food on the table that I didn’t have “extra” energy to allocate toward trying new things and finding my passions.”

Something I do regret is not taking the time to explore during college. I was so stressed the whole time about keeping a roof over my head and food on the table that I didn’t have “extra” energy to allocate toward trying new things and finding my passions. So, when I graduated and was thrust into the real world, I didn’t feel confident enough in my skills to enter the workforce (and honestly, I wasn’t ready). I continued to work on campus for a few months and then worked retail at Apple while I figured out what to do. During this time, I was applying to architecture jobs and internships but wasn’t really getting any bites.

I had done research on master’s programs, both in the US and the UK, and had decided that it was better to study in the UK where the programs were cheaper and often encompassed more aspects of urban design and planning (which I now know I’m more interested in than architecture itself) than any of the US programs. Picking a UK program also gave me the opportunity to study abroad which I never got to do in college.

So, on January 8, 2020 (yes 2 months before all hell broke loose), I flew into Heathrow for what would be a whirlwind tour of schools in London, Manchester, Edenborough, and Paris. I ended up not applying to any schools in Paris, but I still thought I couldn’t go all the way across the Atlantic without stopping in the city of light. I won’t go into detail on the trip (save that for another time), but it was absolutely amazing, and I went home January 29 to quit my job, pack my studio into a U-Haul, and move back home.

One excruciatingly hot summer later I arrived in the UK to study architecture at the University of Greenwich. By this time, Covid was in full effect, and I only had one class in person. I’m getting a bit long-winded, so I’ll sum it up by saying, though I made friends at the school, I felt so isolated in my program not having met (or even really spoken to) any of my classmates and not really getting any academic support from professors. By the end of the fall semester, I had acid stomach daily and was barely sleeping. My anxiety was the highest it had ever been. What’s funny now is that looking back, I only really remember the good parts, but I came back from winter break and moved off campus, spent more time in the city just walking and thinking (which did wonders for my mental health), and by February I had officially withdrawn from my program and planned to return to LA by the end of March. The second I signed off the Microsoft Teams call with my professors I instantly felt immense relief, as if the heaviest of weights was lifted off my shoulders, but it wasn’t all roses. I hadn’t just come to the UK to study and leave, I had planned a life, a career had made amazing friends, and barely scratched the surface of what the city had to offer. It took me by surprise but part of me grieved deeply to leave the life I’d planned and the future I’d worked so hard for.

...on coming back, feeling lost again, and starting over.

So, April 2021, and I’m back in the US. Sleeping on a couch, no master’s degree, no job, and no idea what to do next. I’ll fast forward through the job search, with its never-ending interviews and follow-ups, I got a job in LA (that paid less than I made working retail at Apple, and eventually became unsustainable) got a car (that has since kicked the bucket), and turned my mind to the problem of what to do next.

my hotel room on my first morning in manchester, january 2020. this is such a peaceful memory for me.

I revisited old passions (namely the other majors I applied to colleges for) and eliminated them one by one (Journalism, Film, Creative Writing, Business, etc.). In the end, I decided on law, as a surprise contender I sort of stumbled into but ended up loving and putting everything I had into it. I enrolled for classes over the summer, fall, and winter semesters earning my first semester 4.0 GPA in my life (three semesters in a row!). I admit that part of the reason I was able to do so well was that I wasn’t working during the fall and winter semesters (in the summer I took only 1 class and struggled for the 90% A) and was nervous that the success wouldn’t continue as soon as my attention was divided. Though I 100% planned to go to law school, I was a bit concerned about work-life balance and general barriers to entry into the legal field I would face.

It was around this point that I began to realize that I was still struggling even with my full attention on one thing. After many nights of crying, I stumbled on some information about ADHD and how it presents in adult women. I’ll get to the point and say I have every symptom (go me!) and no insurance for official diagnosis (boo!). Knowing that I probably have it has helped tremendously though as I’ve adjusted the way I think and have adopted new habits and practices that have vastly improved my daily life. But enough about that.

Everything was going well, until the spring 2022 semester, and subsequent financial aid, administrative, and weather issues (knocking out power for my professors and causing them to be weeks off schedule) worked together to essentially make it impossible to continue with my studies. I was faced with a choice to either rush take the LSAT and apply to law schools in fall 2022 or wait a year or more to study and get good scores and apply later. Neither of these choices seemed ideal, but I decided to take some time to give myself the best chance at a great school and admission to a good school.

(Wow, this is really getting long)

...on roadblocks, revaluating, and researching.

So, at this point, I’ve been applying to jobs and interviewing and whatnot for a few months (why are there so many scams?) and suddenly my schedule is wide open. Now, some of you may not know this but I’m a Tiktok girlie. And the black women in tech on Tiktok…have a presence. I started to get so interested in some of the stuff I saw people making during their bootcamps and started doing casual research (Reddit, Google, nothing serious).

inspecting my reflection in the mirror in the manchester museum.

Eventually, I started to think of learning to code as a hobby, something interesting to do while I intensified my job search and studied for the LSAT. So I started to do more in-depth research and compare the different learning platforms and routes. I started to learn more about what a software developer/engineer does and compare that to the work of a data analyst or project manager.

With hours (days really) of research under my belt, I figured it was finally time to jump in and get started.

...on getting started.

And so here we are. With so many resources and different places to start, it was easy to get caught up in the research stage, but I was on TikTok and someone (I feel terrible not being able to remember who) said the important thing is to start. It’s all well and dandy to deep dive into the bootcamps vs degrees debate, join every forum or discord, and spend days/weeks/months “figuring it all out”, but that isn’t going to get you anywhere. I had to check myself and ask, “am I serious about starting?” and if I am then I need to just do it (easier said than done, I know).

walking alone in the cold through hyde park.

So, I decided to start with The Odin Project because I had heard that it offered a more comprehensive intro to computer science fundamentals than FreeCodeCamp, and without a degree in CS, I felt like I needed that foundation.

Well, let me tell you, that was a mistake.

I started TOP and was almost immediately lost. I was so lost.

TOP puts such an emphasis on big ideas in the fundamentals and stresses not moving on until you understand. I just wasn’t fully understanding some of the ideas surrounding the command line and other things that make my head spin even now. I felt a bit discouraged because, at least in the beginning, it’s all reading and there was no feedback. It just became clear that TOP was not a sustainable intro to coding for me.

Thankfully, my research stage was more than fruitful, and I had a backup plan that was easy to transition to and offered the instant feedback I needed: FreeCodeCamp.

Praise the coding gods for FCC! It’s really been so easy to start using and building momentum to move into more challenging topics.

We’ll see where the road takes me, but at this point, I’m looking at this as more than just a hobby. I can see a potential career for myself as a software developer.

I’ll end it here for now but stay tuned for the next few blog posts where I touch on my favorite resources so far, discuss whether I’ll get a degree or do a bootcamp, and recap what I’ve learned through self-study.