On my third day of Flatiron School’s Online Software Engineering program, I was working on a regex lab at a table in WeWork when a group of four guys walked up behind me to go to the espresso machine. Under normal circumstances, you would think that this would be an uneventful encounter, but fortunately, they gifted me with great material for my first blog post.
One of the guys saw the lab on my screen and said “Guys, I’m going to learn coding today! I’m going to learn…JavaScript!” in a high-pitched, sarcastic tone of voice. The other guys in the group chuckled along until they eventually huddled around the espresso machine across the room.
I wish I could say that I immediately stood up and put this gem in his place. To be honest, the first thing I thought was, “Did that really just happen?” followed by a giant wave of shame crashing over me. I can’t help but assume that guy poked fun at me because I am a girl learning how to code. My biggest fear of quitting my corporate job to learn how to code was that people wouldn’t take me seriously because of my credentials, not my gender. Do I have to worry about both now?
It’s easier to revert back to survival mode by reminding ourselves of why we shouldn’t do the things that scare the daylights out of us, but I forced myself to flip the switch on this primal instinct. I reminded myself of why I’m here and crawled out of my shame hole by opening up a Google Doc for this post while giving the espresso machine the stink eye.
Risk is the tariff paid to leave the shores of predictable misery, and I sure as hell am not going to let some cocky guy in pastel shorts stop me from casting off.