Notes & Codes

It was December 03, 2016. I still remember it as though it was yesterday.

I was 13 years old at that time, and I remember signing up for a programming event organized by Piktochart. The event was an introductory, all-day course about Ruby on Rails. It was my first bootcamp, and I felt excited and nervous at the same time (considering I’ve been home schooled for about 4 years at that time, and it felt like a sudden leap to the outside world).

But what I didn’t know is that it would be attended by college students, and working adults.

Wait, what?!?

They made it sound in the ticket description that their targeted audiences are around my age (they used the words “boys and girls”)! They said without programming experiences! For beginners, like me! What am I supposed to do?

That’s what raced my mind as I reached the event place.

Rails Girls Part I: Setting Up the Environment

When all participants are already gathered at the event place, there was a little ice breaking session. I introduced myself to my teammates and vice versa. That’s where I met some acquaintances and friends. I remember their surprised looks when I told them how old I was. I remember how I was even more surprised when I heard where these people are working and studying. I felt very small.

We are then tasked to read the instructions that they provided for setting up Ruby on Rails on our local computers, and to create the basic format of the web app. The web app that we are doing is an idea listing app, where users get to list any ideas that they have, and they can write a description for it, a title, etc. It’s like a Sticky Note, but with a few added features.

It felt like my brain was going to explode just setting up the working environment on my local computer. I have many errors on my console, and I kept raising up my hands for questions. It wasn’t a good start for me.

By the time lunch was served, I felt brain drained, but still ready for round 2.

Rails Girls Part II: Styling the Web App and Wrapping Up

After lunch and a short break, we are then tasked to style the idea listing app and add further features into it using HTML, CSS, and Ruby on Rails. This part felt easier for me, as I already have some background on HTML and CSS. There are still instructions provided, but it’s up to you what features you’re going to add to it.

In my case, I added a log-in page for my web app as it is an idea listing app (no one wants their ideas getting stolen). I also added a feature to let users upload a thumbnail image for every idea that they listed. The process was much easier compared to the first part of the event, and much fun.

When the event was coming to an end, the instructor walks around the room, looking for projects to be presented in front. In the end, five projects were chosen.

One of them was mine.

I remember walking in front of the whole place. I remember feeling nervous, as I would be speaking and presenting my project. I showed them the features I added, and told them how I achieved it. I guess I did a pretty good job in the end.

The event ended with few extra notes by the instructor and picture taking. It was a fun and challenging experience for me, and this event helped build my first steps towards programming, working and networking with fellow tech enthusiasts. I would like to thank Piktochart for organizing this event, and also the mentors, especially the Filipino mentor I met there. He was the one who called the instructor to check out my work to be considered as one of the presented projects, and he helped me get through the errors I encountered.

I’m very glad indeed that I’ve been a part of this.