Boot camp challenges and how I have adapted in the last few weeks

Finally, it was day one of boot camp and I was as excited as I could be.  I had spent the last six months or so learning as much as I could, honing my skills in anticipation of a potential invitation to @Andela’s boot camp. The invitation finally came and we completed our pre boot camp tasks at home in anticipation of boot camp resumption.

Boot camp started on a high, we reviewed the portions of work we had completed from home and the skills sessions were as interesting as I had imagined.  A vibrant and lively boot camp population made the skills sessions very enjoyable.

However, the story changed quite rapidly. Like the saying goes, change is the only constant thing in life. The location of the boot camp (Ikeja) was quite far from my residence (Lekki) and we were required to be on location by  8:30 AM. If you are familiar with Lagos, then you should know that this means planning an extra two to three hours for commute. I eventually had to change residence and temporarily reside in a location close to the boot camp location. Relocating came with its attendant challenges.

While the boot camp organizers provided for internet especially at the off-site boot camp locations, we still has issues with internet connectivity. I had to basically switch to an old SIM card to provide internet for myself.

Working with Test Driven Development (TDD) has also been a huge challenge for me. I was only introduced to this concept in boot camp and I fell in love with it and decided to utilize it fully. While this had made my code writing more focused and effective, it had meant a marked change to what I was used to and it required a lot of discipline for me to adapt and not revert to what I had been used to.

Learning and sticking to the expected GitHub workflow and documentation conventions @Andela was surprisingly quite challenging for me. While I fully understand the reasons why we need to follow conventions, learning and being required to implement them immediately tested my ability to adapt. The timelines for completing the projects also made pressure pile up. However, I was resolute in my commitment to stick to the required conventions and I eventually did so.

Perhaps my greatest challenge has been working with the new ECMAScript 6. I had just started learning javascript a couple of months ago with the old ES5 and we were required to switch to ECMAScript 6 even before I fully comprehended ES5. It was a huge demand on my ability and I had to quickly learn ECMA6 as fast as I could in order to adapt.