The long awaited day arrived, I was both a bundle of nerves and ready to burst from excitement. Thanks to my partner James who left for work at 6.30am, I was used to waking up early during the lockdown anyway and thought I could spend a couple of hours before the start of the day organising and doing some house errands.
After having an informal coffee session with the cohort, we moved on to quite a jam-packed day of zoom sessions learning about each other, what to expect during the course and the structure for the next twelve weeks. We also got to hear from our technical coaches whom we will be seeing throughout the months and learned some interesting facts about programming languages, how they joined Makers as coaches and their journey so far.
Some of my favourite moments of the day were led by the Chief Joy Officer, Dana. We thought about what our spirit animals were (and had a peek of our cohorts’ psyche through theirs), learned about meditation (my first!) and yoga sessions that Makers run on most days to help people unwind, much needed after some challenging coding sessions. It was really refreshing to hear Makers want people to be in their best state of mind throughout the course, so there are all these resources that you can utilise while being aware that when anyone needs help, they can also book a 1 to 1 session with Dana to talk it out.
Being one of the most selective coding courses out there, I’m glad they don’t have a “If you can’t hack it, it’s probably not for you” mentality. If anything, they want you to be aware that some may feel vulnerable during the course, anxious that you’re not making progress, concerned about the present and the future, or even all of the above. Be conscious of how you are feeling, recognise your thoughts and emotions, and with that you may come to realise you are not doing yourself any favours if you talk yourself down etc. Being self aware will also help with… asking for help! If you need help, your peer group, the cohort, Dana and the coaches are there for you.
Here is to day 2 and the rest of the week! Meanwhile, excuse me while I go back to doing some more Ruby koans… Who knew 280 or so koans could take so long? I’ve been working through them throughout the pre-course and there is no doubt I still have much to learn as a young padawan.
