Grow Through What You Go Through With UI Frameworks
08 Oct 2020Quote of the Experience
I have many favorite quotes that motivate me to do better. For experiencing UI Frameworks it is: Grow through what you go through.
growth = vulnerability + uncomfort + self-improvement;
The I to My Experience with UI Frameworks
I am a strong believer in struggling because, at the end of a struggle, something is revealed about yourself. Today’s society paints life as a pretty picture where all that is shown is rainbows in butterflies but in reality, there’s so much struggle. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without all the struggles I have faced. I’ve grown through the things I’ve gone through. Learning something new is like climbing Kuliouou Ridge; there’s ups, downs, twists, turns, the unexpected (especially when I thought it was only 3 miles– its 8 miles). I struggled with UI Frameworks because it was so new to me. I failed a couple of times, got up, patiently trialed, and errored, but totally worth climb because it was so rewarding at the end of this first experience. Many emotions have been expressed through this experience. Emotions ranging from frustration to fatigue but mostly excitement. Coding is amazing, but usually, it’s so frustrating, I want to close my computer and call it a night, but I didn’t. Like I never quit my supposed 3 miles but really 8-mile hike. With UI Frameworks, I have never been so intrigued where I sat in front of my computer non-stop, for days, eager to learn more. It reminded me why I chose this major. The end was as beautiful as being above the clouds at the very top of Kuliouou Ridge, not able to put my feelings into words, just a feeling of the beauty I couldn’t describe. However, I will now try to put it into words now.
The Beginning of the Hike
In the beginning, I was present, going through the modules, doing the readings and preparing with the Hello World exercise. For the last two years, I have tried to take on the task to learn HTML so I can make websites, but I never made it through. During “History of Browsers,” I was a bit overwhelmed by UI Frameworks, but when I finished, I was like “wow, YOU did that” and felt great. I don’t think I was giving UI Frameworks enough credit for the type of things we could do with it. Out of curiosity, I asked Dr. Johnson if we would use “WordPress” and he quickly said no because “we are going to be doing much cooler things.” Still, had no clue what he meant, but my curiosity grew.
The Peak of the Hike
The peak started at E36, where I chose to recreate Nike’s homepage of their website. Phew, I was sweating because it was so complex, but it was my first time where I got to do something on my own. This task was so much fun to me; I kept researching, learning, implementing and it kept me climbing. With the help of Semantics UI and a bombarding amount of questions to the TA, I had recreated a beautiful site so similar to one of the biggest fitness companies in the world. Semantics allows us to make the “cool” projects. If we just used raw HTML and CSS, we would not be creating anything magical I was cheering for myself as I reached the peak of that “wow” feeling.
The Fall of the Hike
As excited as I felt during E36, I also fell face first, more than once. I probably fell more than I can count. I was so new to CSS, Semantics, all of it, that I struggled to understand the simple things. One thing Semantics UI could help out with is an explanation for adding text to an image.. that made me fall base 2 to the n times (thats a big number). For example, how do I add text to a picture? Why can’t I just do “add a textbox” and call it good?! That just was not the case. Even though it was right in front of me, it led me on a marathon to find the right class of Semantics to use. I learned a lot from these tumbles because it pushed me to find the answer to it and ask questions. I have barely asked enough questions this semester, but this week I probably broke the class record. Sounds like a lot of growth to me.
The Home Stretch of the Hike
As I committed my last edit to GitHub and pushed it away, I was still– guess how I felt –.. out of this world excitement. I had made it through E36, recreated NIKE, and learned so much within that time. The struggles were worth it because now I know that Dr. Johnson is right, what we are doing is “cooler” than anything. As I look at websites now, I can easily pick and identify the characteristics that are needed to make a website like that. Utilizing Semantics UI while enduring this journey, is the most helpful part of this experience. Semantics is important to me as a Software Engineer because it shows the things that I can do. Computer Science is not just making algorithms or identifying the runtime of a Binary Search Tree, but its also sharing your creative side with other people which Semantics UI allows you to do.
Moral of my Quote of the Experience
If you are learning Semantics UI or any UI Framework, go through the struggle of reading Semantics UI 100 times and implementing a class along with it before giving up, because you are most likely going to feel great after it. Now, I can’t guarantee you that you will feel as excited as I was because I was pretty– cannot emphasize enough –excited with the Semantics UI experience. Maybe you will end up with something as beautiful as my site.
