Introduction
For those of you who don't know me well, allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Treasure Uzoma, and I'm a frontend website developer. I'm highly skilled in progressive enhancement, design systems, and UI engineering, with performance and scalability being top priorities on my radar.
Learn more about me here.
How It All Started
Throughout my life, as far as I can remember, I've always had a strong passion for technology. From building toy cars with cardboard and small electric motors to fixing damaged electrical appliances and debugging JavaScript codes, I've always loved tech innovations.
I first heard the words programming and hacking from my older brother when he was learning about the internet. He didn't tell me much, but it sparked my curiosity. Unfortunately, I couldn't do much at the time because I didn't have access to the internet.
About a year later, during my second year in high school, a teacher encouraged us to learn a digital skill. Coincidentally, I had just created my first email account a week prior. I told my teacher that I had just started learning to code, and that statement turned out to be one of the best decisions of the year. Days passed, and he invited me to join a Python programming class he was teaching to two other students. Before then, I had already begun learning Basic programming language on my own.
First Lessons
At that time, I had access to the internet using my parents'
mobile phones, but I didn't have one of my own.
He taught us how computers work, the differences between
compilers and interpreters, the levels of programming
languages, and most importantly, the basics of Python.
One of the students learning with us dropped out,
complaining that programming was too complicated, reducing
our class size to two. (It was a free class, by the way.)
He taught us about arrays, variables,
lists & tuples, input types, and loops.
Just as everything seemed to be going well, life started to
take unexpected turns. Unfortunately, he left the school to
focus on his life and tech career.
My Big Switch
After he left, I struggled to finish learning Python and
wasn't sure what to do next.
The other person learning programming with me wasn't very
good and probably quit. (He was a senior in my school, and we
weren't friends.)
Without a mentor to guide me, I ended up learning Java,
Ruby, and a bit of Kotlin.
Programming became boring, and I quit for the first time.
A year later, my sister's classmate mentioned that she was
learning web development and boasted about being able to
build Facebook.
That sparked something in my mind and motivated me to return
to programming. She advised me to start with HTML,
which I did, as I saw her as a professional developer
already.
I began learning HTML on
Sololearn, which she
recommended.
After a few days of learning HTML, I realized I didn't fully
understand what I was learning. I had previously learned a
few programming languages, all of which involved naming
variables and calling functions.
I later discovered through a Stack Overflow thread that HTML
was only a markup language.
After completing my HTML and CSS courses, I moved on to JavaScript and built several projects, including calculators and my very first portfolio website.
Graduation and Exams
After learning, practicing, and repeating the process, the
phone I was using broke, bringing my programming journey to
a halt.
I paused my learning to focus on my education. I graduated
from high school and got a job. With my earnings, I bought a
new phone, which I used to continue learning. Today, I build
websites at
https://treasureuzoma.netlify.app.
Conclusion
I might not be the best person to tell you this, but if
you're still learning to code, don't give up.
Life will always present challenges, but never quit. Taking
breaks may be necessary too.
Thank you for your time. Bye!