Working Title / Under Construction (So Many Puns!)

It's now been two weeks since I started working on a real life application. I have been thinking about that first "hello world!" program I wrote 8 months ago. Now I am submitting code to a company's most prized possession. Extremely intimidating is the phrase that comes to mind.

So I show up to work the first day, not scared, but anxious. I spent the first day setting up my work environment and getting acquainted. Once all that was finished, it was time to get into the code. Turns out I know much less than I can even imagine.

I spent countless hours over many months learning to code by following along The Odin Project -as well as a few tutorials not on their curriculum- and I can tell you that nothing compares to a real project. There are no tutorials that I know of that cover all the information and sheer scope of a real world application. There are so many intricacies, personal styles of the people that have committed code to the repository, and variances in the overall "way we do things."

The first task I was given was to write up an email template. Sounds easy enough: use some HTML and inline styling to take the designer's mockup and turn into a usable product. It turns out that nothing is as easy as it sounds, and it took me a week to get it done (actually it still isn't 100%). I can tell you that in all my studying it was never suggested that I work on my email technique. But that's just the way it is, and there is absolutely no substitute for work experience.

With that said, I feel like an internship is the best situation for me. While I've definitely suffered from "imposter's syndrome"  a few times already, I don't have the added stress of feeling the need to perform for a paycheck. Since I was upfront and honest about where I was at in my understanding of computer programming, I can take a step back and understand that while I may not have completely understood what I was signing up for, my mentor surely did.

This is not to say that I can just sit back and relax, or that I feel no pressure to level up quickly; I need to keep doing what I have been for the passed several months. Whatever task is sent my way, I will give it every ounce of energy I can, with the understanding that I will never know all there is to know about anything.

After two weeks of working here, I still believe 100% that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be, and that this path lies before me is the correct one to be traversing.