Presentation

Tomorrow is the big day. I am writing this in advance to make sure I have time to do it before tomorrow ends, because I know that it is going to be crazy.

Tomorrow is my last day as a boot in Dev Bootcamp. After our usual friday group check-ins, our team will present our final project, then talk about the next week and job searching, and spend the rest of the day pretty much partying…

So, today, to prepare, we worked on the presentation. I was hesitating, wondering if I could speak about refactoring (I did a bit of that… I had a 5 hours streak on it, with 28 commits in the pull request at the end…), but I don’t think it is as interesting as the other things to talk about. At some points, we have to make choices, right?

I will be talking about the javascript part of that app. Basically, since I worked a lot on the connection between pages in javascript, I will be explaining how I built the whole engine. Also, I will try to push the fact that everything is done with very simple methods, clear and readable (still available on github).

When you work with a team on a very tight schedule (= all the time) you have to have concise code. You will never go back and edit/refactor the part you did not have time to write correctly today, and if you think otherwise, you are wrong!

Giving thanks

I always had the feeling that people don’t get the praises they deserve.

Everywhere you go, no matter what you do, people will see the bad sides. If they see the good parts, then they will just not give it enough importance to praise as much as they would complain if they were bad…

When I got accepted for DBC, I thought I needed to work on it, in my own tiny world. After all, one of the idioms I try and follow is “Be the change you want to see in the world” – Gandhi.

So, back in France, I ended up finding old teacher that taught me how to do some things that people called useless, just to tell them how useful they were to me. I went to talk to everybody about what they were doing good…

I like to think that if I am in a very good place, I have the power to have a word that matters to most. If I don’t use it, I am doing something wrong.

So today, I went to Steven, one of our teachers, to tell him about how inspiring he is to me. My words were, more or less : “Before I came here, I ended up doubting myself, thinking that I was taking the wrong path, that I should not be all that ‘crazy’ and start getting into the norm. But coming here, I realized a lot of people are like me. And I feel like he tends to be crazy a bit like I could be, and thanks to that, no matter where I go after that, I will forever know that there are people just like me, in a place somewhere, that they are doing great, and inspiring billions of people. So thank you.”

I then ended up speaking with Shereef, the creator of Dev Bootcamp, and having more or less the same words. Also, I had a meeting with Sefora, a DBC staff member that works for the mental well being of the boots, and was very grateful that I met her. I am looking forward to having more conversations with all of these awesome people… I have so much to learn!

D-4

Today was the day we talk and meet people. In that same idea, I found out that I may end up introducing Thuy to new people everyday of her stay in here.

Teachers and DBC staff are on the list, alumni too, and then even current boots!

I know that there are some nice places and events that happen usually the first week of the month in SF apparently (I just discovered that), and so I will probably end up in all these things, with all these people.

I can say without much doubt that it will be an awesome week and I can’t wait!