Day 27: Red Belt Preparation

Man did the last 24 hours pass by quickly.

Passing the Red Belt test has been on my mind since the previous night and after a brief motivational speech from VT I decided to spend the next two days at the Dojo to prepare for it. I went home briefly yesterday to get dinner and pick up some stuff for the next two days. I got back to the Dojo and did some work for another hour before sleep got the better of me and I fell asleep on the couch. The facility has a shower that I used in the morning and after a quick breakfast at a nearby McDonald's I got straight back to coding before the morning algorithm practice began. At this point algorithms has become difficult to handle. I normally don't have a problem coding these days but that's usually because I can google the answer to complicated problems like sorting. The instructor was adamant that we need to figure this out on our own since many job interviews consist of us answering these problems and potential employers want to see your analytical skills in action to see if we're worth the hire. I've heard of students who studied entire algorithm textbooks just to get a job. I'll keep this mind for the end of the bootcamp so I can purchase the textbooks to review on my own.

After lectures the class spent the entire day working on the Red Belt preparation assignment, which is is a slightly more complicated version of The Wall. It's almost midnight and I'm almost done with it. It took an entire day to work on this and the test tomorrow will 4.5 hours. How exactly am I suppose to create an app as sophisticated as The Wall in that short timespan.

Coding Dojo is a development accelerator but everybody prefers to call it a "coding bootcamp" because it is so demanding it requires that you give up everything you're doing for twelve weeks so they can break you down and rebuild you as a coder; much like military bootcamps break recruits down to rebuild them as soldiers. Many students have quit their jobs, moved away from their homes, and even left their families to attend this bootcamp. By now most of us don't have lives outside the Dojo besides sleeping, and even some of us sleep here so we can get back to coding the moment after we wake up. It is hard on all of us emotionally, especially to those who have boyfriends/girlfriends, wives, and children waiting for them back home.

I can't help but admire my classmates who have wives and children back home and are able to come here. Coming from a traditional nucleus family I often saw marriage and parenthood as an end to individual aspirations. When you're single you're free to travel, work, and live however you see fit. However when marriage and children come into your life freedom walks out. I never had my parents move away because they are bored with the scenery and wanted change, or my dad quitting his job and leaving for three months so he can attend school with the hopes of getting a more fulfilling job. There are always bills to pay, kids to watch, spouses to please, and a tough job market to compete in. When I was younger and cockier I would tell my parents and friends that I'm not going to be like that, that even with the responsibilities that come with age I will still make time to go out and fulfill all my dreams and they were always quick to remind me that it won't be likely as I get older and if I refused to believe them they'd say that I'll learn the truth eventually. Then I got older and reality hit me. Perhaps that's why I might have a fear of commitment. That possibility hit me earlier this year when one of my closest friends become a father. I heard the baby cry and I knew that some of the promises we made to each other will never stick. How can I keep a promise to myself or to someone I care about with a situation like that in the background? Then I met this people at Coding Dojo who have managed to make it work. It isn't easy and many of them have to make compromises but it isn't an absolute trade-off. They might leave a little earlier than the rest, or skip a day or two, but they are here and they know the people they want to be.