Happy Ending

Still on the matter…

We all know what happy ending means. But for anyone that has a double mind on it, it simply means for an event to end in a pleasant way and that is not what this piece is about. However, it is a necessary starting point for this piece. This piece is actually a follow up on an earlier write up titled “I m GROWing with Google” which happened to be a follow up on a much earlier write up titled “A journey of endless miles” So in essence, this piece titled “Happy Ending” is like the season three of the first write up titled “The Journey of Endless miles”.

Now how does happy ending relate to this write up? Well not this write up alone. Happy ending has a relationship with every write up whether positive or negative and most write ups usually end in a pleasant way. Why is that so? You see, many times, we miss the real purpose of writing. We sometimes think that writing should be for show off. To show our accomplishments, achievements, abilities and everything positive about us. And there is nothing wrong with any of those but they should not be the purpose or motivation for our writings. Irrespective of the light in which your write up portrays you, if that write up is not for your private consumption, then the primary motivation for your write up should be to motivate, edify, build up somebody using your knowledge and experiences.

So in essence, whether your journey ended well or it did not end well or it has not even ended, the question is, can it be a source of help to somebody else? If the answer is in the affirmative, then you are good to go. And it is based on this that this piece is given birth to. And please remember that this is like a follow up experience on two previous write ups. So if you have an idea of the content of the initial write ups, then this should be straight forward.

Nevertheless, I will just rewind a little bit. As at the time of the previous write up, I had a job and I stated in it that I was applying for internships and I was certain I was going to get one sooner or later. Why was I employed and still looking for an internship opportunity? Well after I got my Front End Web Developer Nanodegree certificate from Udacity, I felt it was time to make the career switch from a Technical Customer Care Specialist to a Front End Web Developer. Given I had gotten the certification through studying and executing the required task but the knowledge was merely mental. I wanted to be an embodiment of web development. I wanted a job that would not be different from what i was learning.

Finally i got an internship opportunity for a web development role. It was an unpaid internship. Money did not matter to me because learning was my priority. It was to be unpaid for two months but about three weeks into the program, all hell was let loose against me. Some personal matters of which the details would not be necessary here. But the summary of it is that i got into a financial crisis, two of my laptops packed up, continuing with the internship became impossible for me and confusion of a very high degree sets in. I also lost my house in all of these.

Had it been that my laptops were still functional, I would not have been perturbed.

So now no house, no money, no job and worst of all no laptop. At this point I realized that Jesus is more than enough for me. I had to get closer to my saviour. After few weeks, I got used to staying without a laptop. I never knew I could stay for two days without touching a laptop. So my pursuit to learn web development took away almost everything I had but for Jesus. And there is nothing abnormal with this experience though. It should be expected because when you get committed to a cause, every other thing dies. Even in the Bible, there is a parable of a man who discovered a treasure hidden in a field. He went and sold everything he had then used the money to buy that field.

Web development is a treasure that I have found and it is a treasure to me for many reasons. For instance, I enjoy working with computers. Any task that has to do with computers, trust me I can stay awake all night working. Also, any task that has to do with me using tools to create stuffs, count me in. Be it creating graphic designs, music beats, games or web pages and things of those sort are fun to me. Beyond getting paid for my job, enjoying the job is always a plus. Imagine you getting paid for having fun. Also, I like liberty to grow. The job I was doing had no space for a higher movement. Maybe it had and I was the one who was not seeing it. And if it had and I was not seeing it, what difference would that have made to me?

So against all odds, I quit my job. I left a field where i was experienced to another field where I was a complete novice. I left my comfort zone to an unfamiliar territory. I left the known for the unknown. I gave up my bird in hand to pursue the ones flying in the forest. First of March I quit my job and now we are in November. It was around May that I got access to a laptop again. First a friend’s laptop and then my sister’s laptop which I am using up till now. The journey is still on and through this period I have been up, i have been down. I have experienced things I never knew I would — good, bad and ugly. But the good news is that as the days go by, I am getting better as a web developer.

The high points for me are;

Gradually I am gathering experiences and building my portfolio and my network. And it has not ended yet but I am definitely certain that it is going to be a happy ending.

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