It’s been great learning frontend web development through the online coding bootcamp, Bloc.io. It’s an intense program, even from the perspective of their 36 week learning track. I’ve had moments where I’ve wanted to pull my hair out and take up a lesser challenge, like blowing bubbles. Quality endeavors seem to always take effort and I frown upon the easy way when the opportunity to learn is greatly diminished.

Picture a person with an Art degree, a job as a Content Manager and Channel Manager at a stock photo company, a pro photographer, a general right-brainer tackling something as intensely left-brained and strict as web development. That’s me. The only problem I have with the above statement, after a lot of first-hand experience is calling web development strictly left-brained. I believe web development requires copious amounts of creativity though it’s important to stay organized, structured, and maintain focus on the design and functionality of the end product.

I owe all of this to my excellent, talented, and patient mentor Kevin McGillivray and the expert way he helped me to navigate the Bloc curriculum. Bloc organizes the frontend dev track with tasks and lessons divided into chunks of accountability beginning with vanilla Javascript, followed by JQueury, and rounded off with where I spent most of my time, AngularJS. Throw in some HTML, CSS, and Sass and you have the beginnings of some truly comprehensive web dev skills.

This is the beginning of a new journey of creativity and productivity through the craft (and art) of web development that I’m excited to continue. The greatest tool I’ll take away from Bloc and Kevin is the ability to always ask the next question and the means to seek out the answer. As much as any other creative endeavor, the process of web development is continually evolving and changing with each new solution added to an ever-growing resource of knowledge.