Meet my newest Baby!????

Sometime in May this year, I started the course Google Data Analytics. The course is an 8-module course, which would typically take 6 months. By July, I completed all seven modules remaining the last module which is a Capstone Project that allows learners to put everything they have learned into practice.

This Capstone project requires that they pick any dataset of their choice whether from what Coursera already listed or from public data sources. They are to use any of the tools they have learned, e.g. Google BigQuery(SQL), Tableau, R or Spreadsheet.?

Well, trust your girl,?? I’d always love to do something new since I am much more familiar with Tableau, Spreadsheets and SQL. In fact, I have done quite a number of data analysis projects with those tools so, I went for R programming language.

Actually, when I saw the curriculum at the beginning of this course, I was hoping there’d be a way to avoid using R because of what I had heard previously. In fact, two years ago when I learned Python, I thought I had escaped having to learn R. only for me to find R waiting for me at a corner two years down the line.??

You’d be wondering why I didn’t go for other tools if I already had reservations about R.

One, I got captivated when I was introduced to R while taking Module 7 of the course. I found that R is like a one-stop shop that does everything needed from the beginning of data analytics to the end. That means from data cleaning to formatting, analysis and visualization, I would not need to use any other tool (most of the time). I really love that about R.

Another reason is R’s enormous capacity to work on very large datasets while other tools could be hanging if used for that same dataset. I actually attempted starting with Spreadsheet but the dataset I chose was really large and for the first time, Spreadsheet was not responding no matter how much I reloaded it. So, I fastened my belt for the ride with R.??

The last reason, just like you might have known about me, I love adventure a lot! And that part of me most of the time always wins. If I am to describe how I feel when I have to do something new, or something others consider difficult, it’d be how horses get excited and gallop at the smell of battle.??

So, I started my Capstone Project and completed it also in July but there was an issue. All these while, I had been working with Posit Cloud and the Desktop version of RStudio but to publish my work, I wanted to use Kaggle because it’d give more visibility to my work.

Here’s the issue; to publish on Kaggle, I had to create a new notebook on Kaggle and then copy and paste my codes from my local file before proceeding to run them afresh. Then, there was one of the packages I installed that aided my work (in the Desktop App) but it kept throwing an error on Kaggle, it wasn’t installing. The codes ran successfully on Posit Cloud and the local App but it kept throwing the same error on Kaggle for weeks.

At first, I thought it was just a minor issue and that before I knew it, I’d get it fixed before that day ran out. Oh, I was wrong!

I started searching on Google, Bard, ChatGpt, etc. but every suggestion was not working for my notebook. I also saw that many people had that same issue in the past, especially with Kaggle but most of them said they could not get past it. For those that got past it, I tried everything they suggested but it wasn’t working.

Fiam! August came, and I was still on it. Morning and evening, sometimes afternoon inclusive. I kept trying different means, and at some points, I’d create a fresh notebook to see if it was because of the previous one. I just did everything doable. I wanted to get tired but I couldn’t because I was like, "I would not come this far and then give up when I was already 95% done, just for me to upload and carry my newest baby. Nah!"

Sometimes, I’d be on it till my eyes started closing by itself. It was really frustrating.

At the beginning of the final week in August, I had a conversation with one of my mentors and she asked about my progress with the capstone project, I told her the same thing I told her almost a month before. I told her I had some ideas I’d explore that same week and I was really hopeful it’d be successful that same week. Her response was really encouraging and I felt my hope quadruple.????

Even though I was not going to give up, I noticed that it got to a point that I myself was anticipating the same report whenever I ran those codes, “Failed” until the Holy Spirit came to my rescue that even though you want this code to run, you have been expecting it to fail.

Fiam!??♀? I started envisioning what my reaction would be when my code ran successfully. I imagined myself screaming and jumping in excitement and it felt so good!????

Two days later, it threw a different error entirely and I was dancing. That for me meant that I had broken through a barricade. After a few more attempts, my code took a very long time (which was unusual), and I was dancing again.? I knew I was at a threshold so I kept at it, morning, afternoon and night.

And then, on 3rd September, it ran successfully! Oh, I screamedddddd! I actually did some dramatic stuff?? but the summary is that I was really excited. I still am, and relishing those moments for me is so precious.

And yeah, I completed the course and got my certificate. Actually, it is beyond the certificate. I am glad I really paid attention to the learning and the process. I learned a lot as a Data Analyst and even for life generally.

Embarking on different kinds of trials and errors for a month taught me so many lessons, and helped me acquire skills; both soft and hard skills which I would not have known if not for the difficulty encountered. It was an awesome experience.

There are so many lessons I would not be able to unpack in this write-up but I really hope you have learned one or two things.

In case, there’s something that has been proving difficult, please, don’t give up! You can do it! When I calculated the total number of failed attempts I had, it was more than 80 attempts so be encouraged. Don’t give up!

And if you are still trying different things like I was, like my mentor told me, "I’m proud of you!?? The fact that you are still trying means you have not given up and that you have not exhausted your options. Keep it up!"??

Check out my Capstone project here or copy this link https://www.kaggle.com/code/rachealb/capstone-bellabeat-google-data-analytics-with-r Don't forget to like and upvote.

A big shoutout to Bukunmi Olatoye who kept encouraging me to take the course.??

Thank you!??