What’s the saying… “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Well what if you went to college to become a teacher, taught for two years and found out it just wasn’t for you? That’s where I come in.
Hi! My name is Mia Balsamo. Over the summer, I decided that a teaching career was not sustainable for me. After entering college and, without hesitation, declaring Middle Childhood Education as my major, confessing to myself two years into my career that I was not happy with what I was doing was a terryfing realization. Fast forward through the rest of the summer and some very intensive emotional soul searching, and I decided programming was what I was going to set my sights on.
I quickly began taking advantage of the free online coding tutorials and some Lynda.com learning paths and found out that coding actually tied in some of the aspects I really enjoyed about my teaching career. I was still able to utilize my math skills from when I taught Algebra, in addition to my daily use of problem solving (how do I get these damn kids to learn?). After feeling like I found what I was meant to do, I knew I needed to learn more before being able to confidently walk into a job interview, so I starting looking at some various coding bootcamp schools. Flatiron fit all my requirements, being online, moving at my own pace, and the price was nice too!
So here I am, one week into Full Stack Web Development, and I have to say it is rewarding, exhausting, and frightening all at the same time. I’ve already had multiple “can I actually do this?” moments, but from all the blogs I have read, I think these feelings are relatively normal. I’m excited to continue through the coursework and prove that those who can’t teach, can in fact, code. :)