Bootcamp Life - Week 1 and 2

What is it actually, this bootcamp that I am doing?

Before I've ever talked to any bootcamp graduate I imagined a 'programming bootcamp' to be something like a military camp, where people would be drilled to hack away deep into the night, fueling themselves with energy drinks and never leaving their computer.

How it actually is right now feels like being in high school a little bit.

I am in a smallish class with twenty other class mates, we have a schedule for our classes, teachers are giving lectures, we have lunch breaks together, and we even have the lockers!

So apart from them calling our homework 'labs' it is almost like transferred back to teenage years. Oh, and in high school we did not have a beer keg. On our first day it was recommended, to consume alcohol 'wisely, meaning after classes end at 6 pm'.

But - What is that on the schedule on Friday evening? 'Feelings'? Oh yeah, we sit in a circle and everybody gets ready to 'emote'. Sounds weird, but I feel like this actually fits into Flatiron's culture, which focuses on community and group cohesion. I like how they encourage us to work together and stress the importance of social and communicational skills that are necessary to be a successful developer.

This was reflected in our schedule which included a Communication Workshop with an improv instructor. The games we played were not only fun but taught us a few principles of successful communication. Two things I took from the workshop:

1./ Not only being cheered on by fans but also being the hypeman for someone else can feel incredibly good. So be supportive for others!

<yes and>

2./ Have a "Yes, and" mentality. This basic rule for improv can be translated into an everyday mindset. Instead of suffocating ideation processes with problem oriented thinking, try to build on top of each other's thoughts, brick by brick. You might end up with a house.

On our first 'Feelings Friday' in week 1 almost everyone used the work 'excited'. We all dove into something totally new with a group of strangers with totally different backgrounds. Many of us have been working in our jobs for five to ten years, but we also have a fresh high school graduate and upcoming grad school students. This half an hour of everybody sharing a few thoughts does give a glimpse on the group barometer and sometimes we learn fun things about each other. We seem to have one or two party animals, some worriers, some chill personalities, some shy ones, ... I already know that these 15 weeks will fly by so fast and that I am going to miss the group when all's over.

What are we actually learning?

Week 1 was mainly marked by reviewing basic Ruby syntax (e.g. iterating over hashes and arrays) and most importantly OOP (object oriented programming). So the first week felt fun and light. Not like that military camp at all!

But then came week 2.

Day 1 - Learn SQL! Bam!

Day 2 - Learn ORM (object relational mapping)! Bam!

Day 3 - Learn ActiveRecord! BAM!

Oh yeah - this definitely feels more real and like a bootcamp. Soaking up all this new information left me feeling brain dead at the end of the day. But it effing feels AMAZING to learn so much! It is such an exhilarating feeling to absorb and understand concepts that were completely new and foreign to me. Ah, the joy of learning!

Take database table relationships for example: expressing the relationship between a school, students, and teachers with "belongs to" and "has many" makes database modelling so beautifully logical and structured. To quote our lead instructor Tony:

Week 2 had a special treat - a Chair Yoga Workshop. It taught me that we are underestimating the value of releasing stress for learning. When our body's are relaxed we'll absorb knowledge more efficiently. So investing time into Yoga exercises during the day can actually be worth the time. And imagine how much time we are spending crunched and hunched over a laptop, sometimes so engrossed in our projects that we don't even realize how tightened our posture is. So I am very thankful that our school gave us this info on our way right at the beginning of our bootcamp journey.

There are lots of videos out there. Check this one out:

At the end of week 2 - on Feelings Friday - our class seems to continue to feel good and happy. A test is coming up on Tuesday, and in case you fail, you'd have to repeat this module. However, confidence level in our class is pretty high in regards to our first code challenge and most are planning to unwind on the weekend.

What I have not expected was that even on the weekends, after a full week of daily serious brain demanding, I feel the urge to code and engross myself in problem solving. Before the bootcamp I had to use motivation methods to bring up the discipline for studying. Now, I start thinking about random problems and solutions from the minute I wake up, and they even occurr in my dreams.

Making the decision to immerse in a coding bootcamp was probably one of the best decisions in my life.

May yall's weekend be equally beautiful and happy!