Introduction to Programming
One day, my brothers friend came over to our house. I started talking to him, and he wanted to show me something cool. He showed me "how websites are made." What he really did though was show me some HTML and CSS. Although, I was super impressed and actually thought that he made a website anyone could see. He then clarified that he didn't make a website, he just made a file that could be used to make a website. I was so impressed though. I was inspired; I saw a guy who was just a normal person like, even went to my school who had made a web page. I wanted to learn how to do that. So I asked him to teach me. He said he didn't have time, but he would give me a book on HTML.
Learning HTML
As I was reading the book, I was learning a lot and making my own pages that were looking better and better as I went on. I was really enjoying it. I also learned how to edit pages on the internet. I would go to a website, right click, and click "inspect element." I would then edit the HTML and CSS. I showed this to my friends at school, and they were really impressed. Everyone in class thought I was a hacker and thought I had actually hacked into the website and changed it. I was really proud of myself. I was learning while having fun. I was also learning how to search the internet better; how I could find the right answers for my questions. I was learning how to learn.
Web Development
Eventually, I wanted to make my own website that others could see. So I started doing research and found a software called XAMPP. I installed it and made a simple static website to show off pictures of my dogs. All my friends thought it was pretty cool. But I wanted to do more. So I started learning PHP and SQL. I wanted to make a simple page that would let people comment on my pictures. I learned how to connect to a database and made a page that would load comments and another where a user could leave a comment. However, since it was open to the internet, I got a lot of rude, disturbing, and hateful comments. But a lot of the comments were nice, as they were from my friends. I was really proud of myself. I wanted to see what more I could do.
First Python Project
I wanted to make a Discord bot so that my friends and I could have a little laugh with it. I started learning Python and made a simple bot that would respond "no u" to messages containing offensive comments. It was quite a challenge to make, but I pushed through and got it done. I was really proud of myself. I eventually added more features to the bot, and it became a lot more useful. I was really enjoying programming. I wanted to do more.
An Unfortunate Turn of Events
Just as I was getting into programming, I turned 16 years old. My mom said she would no longer support me and I had to pay rent. I had to get a job while going to school. I was working 38 hours a week and going to school for another 30 hours. I didn't have time to program anymore. I was really sad about it, but I had to do it. If I worked any less, I wouldn't be able to make ends meet. By this time my brother was homeless, I was too scared to follow in his footsteps. My mother was an alcoholic and would spend all her money on alcohol and cigarettes. I had to pay for my own food and clothes. I was really struggling. I wanted to go to university so I had to stay in school and I couldnt work any less. I gave up on programming, thinking I would never be able to do it again.
My Programmer Friend
The year is 2022, everything has changed. I had finished high school, escaped from my mom. Being homeless and jobless, I was relying on the government to support me. I was really depressed trying to make my way through university. I was attending The University of Edinburgh, the 15th best university in the world. I was studying chemistry. It was my favourite subject in school, I found it rather easy. But in university, it was a lot harder. I was spending all day studying, just to get disappointing grades. In high school I got all A's. But in university I was studying a lot harder and barely getting B's. This was a massive hit on my motivation and self-esteem. During the christmas break, I started talking to more people online and isolating myself in real life. Out of nowhere, someone who I hadn't talked to in years had messaged me. She saw my Discord status that said "First Christmas, without family: the best Christmas." It was a status I had set to show that even though I am without family, I am the happiest I have ever been. She asked me if I was okay, I started talking to her, and we became friends. She told me she worked as a programmer. I wanted to impress her and I told her that I do too. She started talking about programming way more than I could keep up with. I was really interested in what she was saying, but I didn't understand any of it. She quickly caught on that I didn't understand anything. She asked me what I did know, I told her about my experience. Knowing I wanted to impress her, she set me a challenge.
Getting Back Into Programming
She told me to make a URL shortener website. I got right to it and started writing PHP to make the website. It was great, I was finally programming again after so long. When it was finished, I told her I had finished it and was going to put it on my server so she could try it. But as I was putting it on my server, I ran into a problem. It didn't work. I was trying to hide this from her, but she eventually figured out I was having issues. She asked me what was wrong, I told her that I had a different version of MySQL on my server and computer and the code didn't work on my server due to a difference in SQL syntax. She told me that I should instead use a CSV file to store the URLs because that's a much simpler solution. I, really embarrassed that I failed, agreed to do it her way and started changing the code of the website. Then finally, I had it working. I was so happy, I was finally able to impress her.
Learning Golang
My friend, now my girlfriend, brought up AI, she didn't know how it works, but I knew the basics. I told her about it. She was really impressed with how much I knew. I then decided to make my own AI to predict words in a sentence. I quickly threw it together in Python and showed it to her. She was really impressed with it. But she said it would be better if I had done it in Golang. Since I met her, she wouldn't shut up for even a second about Go. It was really cute watching her ramble on and on. I eventually decided to learn Go. This is where my programming journey really started. Up until this point, I had only made 3 projects. But after learning Go, I dropped out of university and decided I will do an apprenticeship in software development.
I hope you enjoyed reading my story. It was a really interesting journey for me to start programming. I hope it leads somewhere great. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!