Challenges are stepping stones and not stumbling blocks
If a man says he does not have any challenges, he most likely loves staying in his comfort zone, he has not tried something new. Challenges are constant just like change but they are meant to be overcome.
collins dictionary defines Challenge as something new and difficult which requires great effort and determination.
I feel the definition as said it all. So, you will now agree with me in case you disagreed with my opening paragraph.
collins dictionary also defines a boot camp as a set of intensive exercises done on a regular basis and designed to improve strength and fitness.
What is Andela’s boot camp
Andela’s boot camp is a two-week long exercise where young developers gather under one roof to display their growth mindset. It is a stage you must pass through before you’re admitted into Andela’s fellowship.
My challenges at Andela’s boot camp has been effortful, interesting and demanding. But guess what, I am enjoying every bit of it majorly because I’m learning at an exponential rate.
One of my challenges was switching from Java to JavaScript. I started learning Android development using Java like a year ago, so I have to switch to JavaScript basically because the requirement to join Andela is to learn and code with JavaScript.
I had to tell myself that the only thing limiting you is your mind. So, I embraced the ‘growth mindset’ and I’m glad I did. I had to pick up materials on JavaScript. One of the greatest materials I came across was Andela’s Homestudy, it’s been wonderful.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
My PC’s screen got spoilt less than two weeks into the pre-boot camp stage, I was down in the dumps basically because I just fixed the same problem a month ago. I had to reach out to my LFA(Learning Facilitator Assistant) because I was working on the boot camp project already. He told me that I could request for a PC and I did. So, I work with the PC any time I come to the boot camp venue.
One has to move from one’s comfort zone to challenge oneself. ~Dulquer Salmaan
As regards coding, I came across a lot of challenges but I would love to call them “blockers”. At a particular time, I was having an error “Can’t set headers after they are sent to the client”, leveraging on my environment, asking one of my fellow boot campers helped me “unblocked the blocker”. He asked me to use “find” instead of “map” and it worked like magic.
Another blocker was when I was trying to link two tables together, I fixed it by justing making extra researches on Google (the greatest invention of man) and I was able to fix that blocker.
Surround yourself with good people; surround yourself with positivity and people who are going to challenge you to make you better. ~Ali Krieger
Other challenges include reducing my sleeping hours from at least 6 hours to 3 hours, sleeping very late and waking up early in the morning to beat Lagos’ almighty traffic.
Lemme conclude by saying, challenges are signs that you are growing, changing and advancing. It also means you have a growth mindset, you are not stereotyped.
