Good day Dear Reader,

All my life I have been asked many questions. Most of them came in the form of tests and exams, while the others in the form of deep thoughts.

I can still recall the day I started learning [strike]programming[/strike] coding newly. The joy I felt when I created my first web page in HTML was on another level. I was so excited that I could control the computer to do something for me. From that day on I just kept trying to improve my skills in programming, days turned into weeks which later turned into months and then into years -- all spent learning computer programming.

If I had to recall a roadmap of my "programming journey", it would look something like this

HTML -> CSS -> JS (shallow) -> PHP -> jQuery -> JS (fully) -> PHP -> SQL(CRUD) -> C++(gave up same day) -> Python -> Java -> C -> C++ -> C -> Python

I included some frameworks of popular languages because those frameworks helped me understand the language more.

Sometime last year (or so), one of my relatives asked me a very deep question which, at the time, I did not understand. She asked me, "Are you programming as a hobby or a career?". As at the time she asked me that question all I could think of was heck yeah I'm going programming as a career (in a very formal tone). What I did not understand at that point in time was that in this world your plans, no matter how perfect or well-meaning, can easily be turned on it's head for the flimsiest of causes. Quite lately, it seems like this "reality" is dawning on me. I've always been the type of person that doesn't jump to conclusions too quickly (if ever), that's why I say "reality" (because I'm not all too sure that this really is a reality). In the past I've always been able to push through because I'd set a list of various things that I want to do -- that way if I'm not feeling emotionally stable, regardless of the reason, I always have some activity to fall back to. I normally plan out multiple activities for myself because I know that doing one task for even a whole day would be a somewhat difficult task for me to complete, so I like to "mix-and-match" multiple activities in a single day.

Presently, I find my self burdened. Burdened with the fact that I will soon join the working force of this great nation (you know the nation I'm talking about). I wish to work in a field that's "technology-inclined" but I don't even have any bit of experience whatsoever. This fact is making me feel like I've been wasting my life but, even so, this is the only life I'll get so I'd rather waste it doing something I have a passion for than just living a "regular" life, devoid of my dreams.

I recall the illustration someone once gave me about money. I can't exactly remember the words he used to summarize it but the story goes like this, during the wars in Russia, there was this system of government they operated in which as a solider, if you try to flee from the battlefield you will be shot down by another solider because you will be seen as a coward. The reason why another solider would shoot you from fleeing from battle you ask? It's because he would be shot by another solider for allowing to coward to run away and that solider would be shot in turn for not shooting a coward and the next solider would shoot the solider who didn't shoot the solider who didn't shoot the cowards... basically, the cycle continues on and on. The moral behind the story was this, "Don't seek for money, seek for solutions".

As my time (and number of words per post) is running out, I wish to end this post with the following requests.

- I wish to be the kind of person that is free financially. With my current skill set, how can I improve myself to start taking steps towards that goal?

- How do I land a job with my skill set? When I say "land a job" I do not mean it in the literal sense. For now, what I want is to rack up experience, either though jobs or through team projects (I don't necessarily want pay right now, just the knowledge should be sufficient -- I just want to see how it's done IRL and adjust to accommodate it)

Lastly I would really like it if you would constructively criticize my post (down to my grammar even) and check out my GitHub profile at https://github.com/Adophilus

I recently created a new repo for handling network communication (through the use of sockets) in python https://github.com/Adophilus/socket-utils I would really like it if I could get some contributions to the project (as this would help me rack up experience in team projects).

Learn what the market needs. I like your roadmap but it's impossible to learn all those things you listed there. Just find a niche, build out projects. Stick to it, create a portfolio for yourself and apply to jobs.

tensazangetsu20:
Learn what the market needs. I like your roadmap but it's impossible to learn all those things you listed there. Just find a niche, build out projects. Stick to it, create a portfolio for yourself and apply to jobs.

I'll get right on it