BLEU

13/07/22

I’ve just finished week two of DevAcademy Aotearoa’s BootCamp. That means just seven weeks until I’m graduating which seems about forever away and simultaneously within arm’s reach.

Time flies when your life follows this loop:

See the Pen Untitled by BleuHere (@bleuhere) on CodePen.

Yep, it’s a lot. A lot of high-speed, hands-on-keyboards learning, a lot of connecting with folks from around our motu, a lot of facing personal and learning challenges, a lot of deep breaths, a lot of learning breakthroughs, a lot, a lot!

It’s an incredibly saturated environment, a mix of meta-learning, learning how to navigate pair work, acknowledging when and how to ask for help and support, diving deep into how we connect to ourselves and others, and plenty of ‘are we doing this right? I’m gonna quickly google it, hold up a minute’.

So at week two, what can I tell you?

• Te Whare Tapa Whā has shifted my mindset around wellbeing, and I am so looking forward to further integrating this model in my own wellbeing practices
• Practising new content in a pair programming session is mind-stretching and super effective. You’d expect it to be like two people simultaneously whacking a piñata blindfolded, but instead it’s more like two birds building a nest with tiny threads they picked up along the way, interwoven with new information, google searches and a mumma-bird facilitator swooping in from time to time to give a little guidance and encouragement.
• My technical skills have seriously improved. It wasn’t long ago that looking at a callback function made me tear up with confusion and frustration, and ‘deployment’ was a word I knew belonged to the internet and war. Now I’ve deployed two baby apps to heroku, I can explain callbacks in async functions to a cohort-buddy and JSON is not just a childhood friend’s name to me anymore. Woohoo!
• I have to say, I wouldn’t be happily here if it weren’t for the generous and patient teachers, facilitators, cohort-buddies, friends and family that I feel seriously grateful for and privileged to be around. There have been some days where my brain is throwing big errors, and times where the load pushes from ‘a lot’ into the ‘too much’ territory. To those around me, thank you for the support thus far. I hope I get the opportunity to return the kindness.

There’s so much more to learn, to explore, to experience and discover. I’m excited about the next weeks, and hope to have some more time to write to you, internet visitor, and update you on the good, the hard and the learning.

Until then, I recommend looking into Te Whare Tapa Whā, sending your busiest buddy a message full of aro and joy, and looking up at the night sky sometimes.

Kindest,

Bleu