Don't Belittle Your Growth!

'Never despise small beginnings, and don't belittle your accomplishments. Remember them and use them as inspiration as you go on to the next thing. When you venture outside your comfort zone, wherever the starting point may be, it's kind of a big deal.' - Chris Guillebeau

I have been engrossed with back-to-school runs that's why this edition is coming a bit late.?

As I write this, I feel drained and have a lack of motivation. Asides from the fact that ALX is taking its toll on me, the situation in this country is demoralising, to say the least.?

We are having to spend more than double of what was spent for the last new session back to school because of the rate of inflation; inflation without the connumerate flow of income. You bring down your standard of living to the minimum, 'cut your coat' to the extent of cutting your fingers with it, bend over backwards and still no difference. When is enough ever going to be enough in this country????

Anyways, we move!

Well, don't let me bore you with my feeling of gloom this afternoon, I just had to vent. How have you been doing??

In my last newsletter, I made mentioned having experienced imposter syndrome and what made me overcome it.?

A few days ago, I was explaining a concept to an ALX peer on Google Meet, I didn't know my husband had been listening until after the meeting when he said, 'my Software Engineer! See how you now 'flow' in technical tongues'.

That was when it occurred to me that I have made so much progress within the past month. This time last month, I didn't know what flowchart was; Pseudocode would have sounded like an ice-cream flavour and Ubuntu sounded like the title of a horror movie.?

I am acquiring skills, coding and decoding as if I've been doing it all my life. The progress is growing on me such that I don't even notice it. You know when you learn to do a little bit of something every day, you get to the point when you know to do so much of it that you forget when you couldn't do any of it.?

All you need to do is a little bit of something, just a little more every day and before you know it, you have garnered a whole new set of skills.?

By the way, I am enjoying studying C, the program that was giving me panic attacks just by thinking of it some 14 days ago.

The ALX Software Engineering Curriculum is so deep and broad that it gives a solid foundation for software engineering. We are made to learn concepts which may seem irrelevant to present-day software engineering but which if well learnt and internalized, will make one well seasoned. As I keep showing up in the program by studying the concepts, doing the tasks and projects and going a little further in personal study, I am slowly but surely getting closer to my goal.

What I'm trying to say is, to not belittle your progress. Don't compare your step one or year one with some other person's step eight or year eight. Don't despise your days of little beginnings.

Some days ago, I encouraged someone to show up regularly on Linkedin and after a few hours, he came back and said to me that most people on the platform are content writers. I told him to forget about most people and just do his own thing.?

That is what happens to a lot of us, we focus so much on what's going on around us that we forget to do 'us'. And when we eventually do, we look at other people and compare our progress with theirs neglecting the fact that we started differently with different visions and missions.

It's like marriage, if you're in your early years of marriage, it will be unreasonable to compare your marriage with those who have been married for much longer, otherwise, you'll just put undue pressure on yourself and your spouse, which will cause strain to your relationship. Those couples that have been married longer have had their issue, paid their dues and may now be enjoying the fruits thereof. You don't know what they've or are struggling with, comparing your marriage with theirs will be a gross error.

Even if you started at the same time, your pace and paths may be different. You'll make more progress and be happier if you face your focus and do you.?

On my technical journey, the probation period comes to an end in a few days, that's when we'll know those of us going further in the ALX SE program for my cohort. In my next edition, I should be sharing the good news with you.?

Till then, I'm the not-so-noob-to-tech aspiring software engineer, thank you for helping me stay accountable.

I wish you the very best of the week ahead.