A rough start to a long journey

This will be more of a personal account, probably reading more like a diary when I'm done than a professional blog but I've never claimed to be a perfect professional. So here we go.

I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Hi, I once thought of myself as an artist and initially went to college for Graphic Design. While there, I learned a bit about a program called AfterEffects as it was casually mentioned in my Flash class. This got me interested in the Visual Communicaitons course also offered at Western. I enrolled (now double majoring) and graduated with both degrees. Unfortunately, at the time I graduated there wasn't a lot of call for freshly-graduated designers looking for entry-level work. I needed more experience to get a job to get expereince, the classic connundrum. Thus, sadly, I wound up working outside my field of study.

Fast-forward ten years, I've moved away and back and been through several jobs only to find myself back in college. This time, though, I have a different focus. Programming. I had dabbled a bit with programming both in my previous degrees and outside of the school setting. I knew som HTML from picking websites apart to edit them and had learned how to circumvent javascript code (not knowing how said code worked, mind you) in order to save pictures from certain sites. All in all, about as basic an understanding as it comes.

Getting back into the habits of being in school is difficult, especially after having been away from it for so long. Add to that the fact that I had barely been back home from moving states a handful of days before it was suggested I go back to school and the fact I was expected to start a new job around the same time. I'm grateful to have what scant shreds of sanity I have left. What pulled me through was honestly probably my friends, who are also programmers of various descriptions. One in particular was extremely helpful in getting me to understand and pass Java. Not sure if I would've gotten through without him.

I'm hoping that next semester will go a little more smoothly, now that I'm more settled at home and have a bit of a handle on the new programs and languages. HTML remains my strongest language, followed by JavaScript and then Java. It was difficult learning them both at once because even though learning Java made JavaScript easier, the reverse was not true. But in any case, I've only just started and need much more practice so I can hopefully make the new projects I've added to my list.