I stepped away from my blog for a while to try and figure out what the heck I was gonna do with it. Just recently, though, I made a big decision that I hope will make a change in my life in the coming year(s). I’m learning a programming language. And if you couldn’t guess, Ruby is my language of choice. I dabbled in Java for about two weeks, but the learning curve was just too steep for me. I did some research on the Team Treehouse website, which I had chosen as my source of learning coding. Ruby just seemed to feel a bit more welcoming. As an aside, I have no affiliation with Team Treehouse, but I highly recommend it if you are wanting to learn coding. My experience has been nothing but positive.

So that decision brings me to today. I’ve been in the Ruby course track for about a month. I’m enjoying myself and loving the feeling of challenging my brain again. Ah, the brain. Having been out of any sort of regimented learning environment for many years, I’ve not had the chance to see just how much longer it takes for something new to sink through my thick skull. The key for me has been repetition. Sure, there’s variation thrown in for good measure, but lots of repetition. It’s eye-opening how slowly my brain is to accepting new information. Persistence will pay off.

It’s good to be learning again. As strange as it sounds, the elementary coding I’m doing is (mostly) relaxing. Slap on the headphones, block out the rest of the world, and practice. If you’re seeing this post and have a comment or story about learning a programming language for the first time, or learning anything that really challenged you, drop a comment. I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for dropping in!