There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. - Nelson Mandela

I've spent a lot of my life "returning to code". I've taken a lot of detours, chosen different paths through my life, and in so many ways always found myself circling back to development.

It was around April this year that I made the decision to officially aim at a career change into web development. It was time, it was needed, it felt right, and I knew there would be a hard road ahead of me. Being a self-taught developer isn't impossible but it certainly is difficult. Since this decision in April life has gotten a bit difficult, a bit overwhelming, and it's been hard to be consistent with learning.

I'm "returning" from taking about a solid month and a half off - on top of the sporadic learning since April. Looking back, I see that even though I may not have been coding as consistently as I'd have liked - other just as essential work was being done in my life. Like a blacksmith adding and re-adding their metals to the furnace in order to fire off the impurities - I feel like the struggles I've had since April both personally and through life circumstances have been a furnace of sorts. While my "consistent habit making" of learning code everyday didn't materialize as I thought it would, what I received instead was the crystallization of purpose, of necessity, and of the path ahead.

It's still the same hard journey it was when I set out in April. It will still take habit forming and sacrifice in order to develop my skills strong enough to get to where I want to be - but without the "furnaces" of life I find these paths end up being more difficult, riddled with weeds and thorns; the furnaces clear some of those weeds for you so at least a small foot path is visible.

I'm at the stage where I have a functional understanding of JavaScript and a beginner familiarity with React but I need to flex those muscles more now. Stretch those creaky hesitant wings and realize that I can actually fly and I do know more that I think I do. Part of my "refresher" upon returning has been to treat FreeCodeCamp as a "puzzle/flash card" system. It's functioned surprisingly well as that. They give you just enough information to understsand your task and because your tasks are little bite-sized logic puzzles you end up a great reminder-challenge. It's so hands on that it feels like a little mini "project" which is precisely what I need right now. I need to take the theory and make it practical - real life - tangible.

There are piles of very good resources out there for self-taught dev's - free and paid. The hardest part about teaching yourself however is wading through them yourself - finding the ones that work the best FOR YOU and how you learn. I've gratefully found a system that works for me and the final piece here is finding ways to branch off into my own projects, tinker with my own problems, and find the right tools that help me do that.

If you are a self-taught developer I'm sure your journey has been incredibly unique and challenging. If you are like me and at the start of a long road - I wish you good luck and happy hunting =)

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