"Live in high" or my story from procrastination to self-development

Hello Friend.

Today we will not talk about complex and not very aspects of programming languages ​​or some kind of Rocket Sience. Today I will tell you a short story about how I got on the path of a programmer. This is my story and you can’t change it, but if it helps at least one person to become a little more confident, then it was not told in vain.

Prologue

To begin with, I was not into programming from an early age, like many of the readers of this article. I, like anyone gouging, always wanted something rebellious. As a child, I loved to climb abandoned places and play computer games (which gave me quite a few problems with my parents).

Being in the 9th grade, all I wanted was to get rid of the all-seeing parental eye as soon as possible and finally “live in a high”. But what does this mean, this notorious "to live in a high"? At that time, I imagined it as a carefree life without worries, when I could play games for days on end without reproaches from my parents. My teenage nature did not know what he wanted to become in the future, but the direction of IT was close in spirit. Despite the fact that I loved films about hackers, this added courage.

So it was decided to go to college. Of all the things that interested me most then and were on the list of directions, only programming turned out to be. I thought: “Well, I’ll spend more time at the computer, and the computer = games.”

College

I even studied the first course, but we had no more programming-related subjects than there were birches at the North Pole. From the sheer feeling of hopelessness, I dropped everything in my second year (I was miraculously not expelled for ANNUAL absenteeism). We were not taught anything interesting, there I got acquainted with the bureaucratic machine or it with me and understood how to get grades correctly. Of the subjects, at least indirectly related to programming, we had "Computer Architecture", which for 4 years had 2,5 pairs, as well as "Fundamentals of Programming", on which we wrote 2-line programs in BASIC. I note that after the 2nd course I studied perfectly (with a warm parental hand). How I resented and shook, saying: “We are not taught anything, how can we become programmers? It's all about the education system, we're just unlucky."

This came from my mouth every day, to every person who asked me about my studies.
After graduating from college, having written a thesis on the topic of DBMS and a hundred lines in VBA, it gradually began to dawn on me. The process of writing a diploma was hundreds of times more valuable than all 4 years of study. It was a very strange feeling.

After graduation, I didn’t even think that I could someday become a programmer. I always thought that this was an area beyond my strength with a bunch of headaches. "You need to be a genius to write programs!", it was written on my face.

University

Then university began. Having entered the direction of "Software Automation" I had even more reasons to shout about the terrible education system, because even there we were not taught anything. The teachers followed the path of least resistance, and if you could type 10 lines of code from a piece of paper on the keyboard, they would give you a positive mark and leave like a gentleman to drink coffee in the teacher's room.

Here I want to say that I began to feel undisguised hatred for the education system. I thought that I should be given knowledge. Why did I come here then? Or maybe I'm so narrow-minded that my maximum is 20 thousand a month and socks for the new year.
It's fashionable to be a programmer now, everyone admires you, mentions in a conversation, like: “... and don't forget. He's a programmer, that speaks for itself."
From what I wanted, but could not become, I reproached myself constantly. Slowly, I began to come to terms with my nature and thought less and less about it. I was not praised at school, well, okay, not everyone is destined.

While studying at the university, I got a job as a salesman and my life was relatively calm, and the longed-for "live high" never came. Toys didn’t excite the mind anymore, I didn’t feel like running around the abandoned places, and some kind of longing appeared in my soul. Once a buyer came to me, he was smartly dressed, he had a cool car. I asked, they say: “What is the secret? What do you do for a living?"

This guy turned out to be a programmer. Word for word, the conversation started on the topic of programming, I started whining my old song about education, and this person put an end to my gouging nature.

“No teacher can teach you something without your desire and self-sacrifice. Studying is a process of self-learning, and teachers only put you on the right track and periodically lubricate the pads. If it’s easy for you during training, then know that something is definitely going wrong. You came to the university for knowledge, so be brave and take it!” he told me. This man kindled in me that weak, barely smoldering ember, which was almost extinguished.

It dawned on me that all my surroundings, including myself, were simply decomposing behind a screen of naked black humor and fairy tales about the untold riches that await us in the future. This is not only my problem, but the problem of all youth. We are a generation of dreamers, and many of us do not know how to do anything but dream about the bright and beautiful. As we procrastinate, we quickly set standards for our lifestyle. Instead of a trip to Turkey - a trip to the country, there is no money to move to the city you like - nothing, and in our village there is also a monument to Lenin, and the car no longer seems such a wreck. I understood why “to live in a high” has not yet come.

On the same day I came home and started learning the basics of programming. It turned out to be so interesting that nothing could satisfy my greed, I wanted more and more. Nothing has fascinated me so far, I have been studying for days on end, in my free and non-free time. Data structures, algorithms, programming paradigms, patterns (which I did not understand at the time), all this poured into my head in an endless stream. I slept for 3 hours a day and I dreamed about sorting algorithms, ideas about different software architectures and just a wonderful life where I can enjoy my work, where I will finally “live high”. The unattainable Ultima Thule has already appeared over the horizon and my life has found meaning again.

After working in the store for some more time, I began to notice that all young people are the same insecure guys. They could make an effort on themselves, but they preferred to be content with what they had, deliberately giving up their unfulfilled desires.
After a couple of years, I have already written some really useful programs, I fit well into several projects as a developer, gained experience and got even more charged for further development.

Finale

There is a belief that if you do something regularly for a certain period of time, then this "something" will become a habit. Self-learning is no exception. I learned to learn on my own, find solutions to my problems without outside help, quickly extract information and apply it in practice. Now it's hard for me not to write at least one line of code a day. When you learn to program, your mind is rebuilt, you begin to look at the world from a different angle and evaluate what is happening around you differently. You learn to decompose complex problems into small, simple subtasks. Crazy thoughts come into your head about how you can arrange anything and it will work better. Perhaps that is why many people think that programmers are “out of this world”.

Now I have been hired by a large company that develops automation and fault-tolerant systems. I feel fear, but along with it I feel faith in myself and in my strength. Life is given once, and in the end I want to know that I have contributed to this world. The history that a person creates is much more important than the person himself.

What a pleasure it still brings me words of gratitude from people who use my software. For a programmer, there is nothing more valuable than pride in their projects, because they are the embodiment of our efforts. My life is full of wonderful moments, “to live in a high” came to my street, I began to wake up in the morning with pleasure, began to take care of my health and really breathe deeply.

In this article, I want to say that the first and most important instance of education is the student himself. In the process of self-learning lies the process of self-knowledge, sometimes thorny, but bearing fruit. The main thing is not to give up and to believe that sooner or later that irresistibly distant “living in a high” will come.

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Source: habr.com