I may already 'made it' as a Ruby on Rails developer, but that doesn't mean that I don't have weaknesses in my developer abilities. I know that doing creative stuff in the front-end is not my strongest area. Sure, I'm able to work on the haml/slim/html views and coffeescript/jquery in the front-facing portion of the Rails app I work on, but coming up with cool designs and integrating/writing interesting javascript are not things I consider myself good at. I've also been trying to level up my javascript and learn more ReactJS, but felt that some gaps in my understanding of the fundamentals of javascript have been making it really challenging for me. I think my approach of reading random bits and pieces about JS from online articles, tutorials, videos has only left me feeling... fragmented.
I feel like I needed more of a path for learning with little challenges and project along the way, so.... I have started the FreeCodeCamp front-end curriculum to push me along/keep me on track. It might be silly for someone with some experience as a dev to do this curriculum, but I don't think so. I have been able to fly through the HTML/CSS/Bootstrap parts and started on the first individual project for FCC on Saturday -- a tribute page.
It's kinda silly, but I'm really love + proud of the page I made. It's so silly, really, but I actually keep going to look at it again, to see the responsive design as I change the size of the browser window from big to small, and think about the quotes I included from Andy Warhol as I swipe through the 5 simple sections. It makes me smile. I love it because I feel like I finally made something with my coding skills solely for art's sake, I didn't make it for anyone else and made it in the exactly the way I wanted. I made something for no reason other than to exist and be beautiful.
