A Coders Two Journeys: Act 1
Everyone loves a good story, right? What exactly is it about a good story that keeps an audience captivated and in eager anticipation of a character they barely know?
Good stories have a captivating CHARACTER (“the hero”) who is pursuing some compelling VISIBLE desire and facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles in achieving it.
That character partakes on a Quest or Adventure with a DESIRE to achieve something physical that has a “finish line” or a GOAL we as the reader or viewer can visualize. Some examples I can think of where the main character has a visible goal at the beginning of the story are Gladiator — killing the emperor, Rocky — becoming the boxing heavyweight champion, or Aladdin — becoming a Prince and winning the heart of Jasmine.
As each character takes off on their adventure the path to reaching their goal seems nearly impossible” to achieve. They are all faced with seemingly insurmountable adversity and CONFLICT before they can become who they need to be to meet the challenge of completing their goal.
With a focus on these key aspects of our character, our emotion towards them grows through their conflict…the more unlikely it seems someone can achieve their goal the more we are drawn to that character as they strive to pursue it.
OK… so how does this relate to being a coder?
The main characters desire, goals, and initial conflict
Character.new(me)
A year ago I was driving a truck over the road with no real plan insight as to how I would provide for my wife and then newborn son. All I knew was that I was prepared to do any and everything to provide for my family. Driving OTR was a temporary paycheck but that paycheck would pay for me to go back to school and get a degree in Computer Science….so I thought.
With a long-term goal in sight, I felt good about the direction I was headed in but I also felt weary and anxious about being away from my family so much over the course of the next few years.
There we so many unanswered questions: How would I be around to raise my son and spend time with my wife if I was out on the road for 4 weeks straight? With my obligations to the trucking company I worked for could I still manage to take classes when I wasn’t driving? Would I have the time and energy to accomplish my goal?
This list of unanswered questions and obstacles to overcome seemed to be growing by the minute…and yet, stubborn and persistent as I am I still pushed forward toward my goal.
my_desire = Desire.new(“become a software engineer”)
The clear and present desire at that point in my life was primarily to become a software engineer as soon as I could so that I could get a job using my newly earned skills and provide more long-term security for my growing family.
I have a wife and son who need me around and who need me to provide stability. In my mind, the short-term sacrifice of not being around much for the first two years seemed like one I was willing to make…
my_desire.include?(conflict)
Just like any good desire or goal that has ever been created, my desire was not remiss of any hurdles or conflict as I crawled my way through this new existence as a truck driver.
Unfortunately, the promise of the open road is not all it's cracked up to be. It is grueling, tiresome, doesn't EVER pay what trucking companies promise, and is REALLY bad for your health.
For example, the company I worked for would have me drive 4 weeks straight on the road with a co-driver I didn’t know from Adam all so I could make a whopping $700/week and get to spend 4 whole days a month at home with my family.
After nearly 6 months on the road and training to reach my goal of becoming a solo driver and own my own truck, what happened? The same thing that happened to us all, COVID….
seemingly_insurmountable_adversity = “COVID-19”
My plans all started to crumble right before my eyes…I could see my Computer Science degree and my Software Engineering career fading away into the abyss.
A few weeks later after expressing my concerns to family and friends about driving during the pandemic I knew it was time for me to figure out how to get off the road and back home to be with my wife and son.
The preacher at my church who is also a very close friend of mine mentioned to me one morning while we were having a cup of coffee together that he dropped my information to his financial advisor and that I might be getting a call from him or a recruiter.
Needless to say, this was an answered prayer for me. About a month later I was able to come back home after quitting my driving job and start working towards becoming a financial advisor.
seemingly_insurmountable_adversity = “The World Closes Down”
I thought for sure when I started as a financial advisor I would finally hit my stride. I thought, COVID would be gone in a few months and it would all blow over.
CLEARLY, I thought wrong!
The industry I just joined to become a financial advisor had just experienced the worst short-term crash the stock market had ever seen and of course, the business model for a financial advisor is to meet face-to-face with clients. When you are dealing with their life savings and many clients want to meet you in person to know and feel that they can trust you.
And as life does, it threw me for yet another curve ball! After a few months of taking Zoom meetings with my inner circle of friends and family, I came to a dead end. I was nearly out of money and not bringing in any fresh capital that was consistent. I needed to speed up the process to becoming a software engineer and it needed to happen, FAST!
my_new_desire = my_desire.update(“become a software engineer, as QUICKLY as possible!”)
So to make this desire possible, I had to seek out and find the best software engineering Bootcamp I could find. It just so happens that one of the top boot camps in the states has a location where I live!
I immediately filled out an application and started diving into the 170+ hours of pre-work that they want you to have under your belt before you start your cohort. Shortly thereafter I was accepted into the school and haven’t looked back since!
Time.now
So here I am today, four weeks into my journey to becoming a software engineer and I wanted to take some time to reflect upon these last few weeks and provide some insight for those of you considering a similar journey of your own…
Each journey that a character takes in any good story always starts with the “Outer Journey”.
Your outer journey is your surface level, physical journey. The journey someone else will see when they look at you. It has your visible finish line or goal, and the steps that you take to get there.
However, there is a part of each character’s journey that is often overlooked throughout most of their story. This is the inner journey that we all take as we “become” who we need to become to achieve this grand new goal that we have.
This inner journey is full of pain, struggle, sleepless nights, and early mornings. Physical, mental, and spiritual pain accompanies all of this and it’s never easy when setting out on such a transformational goal. But that is the goal overall is it not? TRANSFORMATION.
Not solely of who we are on the outside and what our “title” may be once we reach our goal, but more importantly who we became through our struggle that made achieving our goals possible in the first place.
As I progress through this series of stories around my journey you will inevitably see the struggles of my “outer journey”. I will share my successes and failures with programming, what I have learned to do and not to do, and how I have applied those lessons in the real world.
But, the main concept I want to pass on to you is the concept of the inner journey.
Although it's a bit more abstract at the moment. The more I write, the more apparent the journey I have taken becomes.
This is where the life lessons lie and I hope to share those lessons with you, the reader, the student, the career changer, and the dreamer. So that through my story and my struggle you can become the captivating Hero of your own story…
See you in Act 2 and check me out on LinkedIn, Twitter & YouTube for more updates and technical tutorials in the near future!
The concept’s and idea’s in this article come from: “The Hero’s 2 Journeys” by Michael Hague & Christopher Vogler