That Flexbox Feeling
Have you ever had that moment when you're moving along, feeling good, and, suddenly, you hit a wall? It’s that moment when you begin to doubt everything you’ve done up to that moment. You begin to question yourself: Do I really deserve to be where I am? What have I missed along the way? If you don’t give up (which you won’t because you’re not a quitter), you will begin to backtrack like you’re looking for something lost. You will retrace your steps, review, and continue to go further back to where you “lost your confidence.” You will find it, eventually. When you do, relief and joy both hit you at the same time. Your confidence is restored. Now you can begin taking baby steps back to where you once were. Though you have a newly found confidence, you are afraid you might miss something again. This has been my journey with Flexbox.
I am a beginning Web Developer who began my committed journey with DevSlopes Academy about 15 weeks ago. This has been an awesome journey, and I couldn’t be happier with all the support offered through the community. However, with pride in the way, I hit my wall around Week 11 while trying to make a Responsive Website. Honestly, I’m not sure if my wall was understanding when to use CSS Grid or Flexbox, or if it was the challenge of making the website responsive with media queries. Whatever the case, it has taken me about a month to get back to where I started after I began reviewing the material. Did I need to retrace my steps so far back and waste so much time? Probably not, but I gained many valuable things along the way.
The first thing I did to review was to purchase a Udemy course that had been mentioned in our Discord Community. This course, The Complete 2020 Fullstack Web Developer Course by Kalob Taulien, has well-structured content that is clearly explained. As I began this course, I decided to start at the very beginning with HTML. Naturally, the course next moved deeply into CSS content. Flexbox was coming, it was just a little further into the course. I knew I was not getting the focused answers on Flexbox or the responsiveness that I was looking for, but I didn’t want to miss anything along the way. In doing this, I did not make much forward progress in my coursework or knowledge of web development for a while; however, I was reminded of all the things I had learned and already knew up to this point. Reviewing these fundamentals renewed a little confidence in myself and helped me push forward.
Throughout this time of reviewing the Udemy Course, I would say I became more familiar and more confident with Flexbox. Was this a positive? Absolutely! My takeaway is this: Stay in code every day, even if you are not actually typing code. Watch videos. Read articles. Do what you have time for to keep your mind in code. However, don’t take too much time away from the specific problem you are trying to solve. Force yourself to press forward.
“Stay in code every day, even if you are not actually typing code. . . . Force yourself to press forward.”
Another thing I discovered by reaching out to our Discord community is that if you need help with Flexbox, you must check out the 30-day tutorial tips in visual form created by Samantha Ming: Flexbox30. She has made the Flexbox concept so simple to understand by providing graphical demonstrations. Thank you, Samantha Ming, for making Flexbox simpler for those of us who have been having to “flex” our minds to be able to “contain” these concepts. Now I can use Flexbox more confidently and realize its value, simplicity, and ability to make Responsive Websites easier. If you struggle to understand Flexbox, I recommend you start here with Flexbox30.
After a month of reviewing, another brave Discord Community member stated, “I think I’m in my head about . . .” He was also struggling with a specific concept. To this response, our instructor, Jason, stated, “Yeah just remember you don’t have to be an expert at it to move forward. Keep moving forward with the lessons and modules . . .” Wow! This is just what I needed to hear even though the response wasn’t directly to me.
I was reminded, “You don’t have to be perfect, yet. The more you do, the better you’ll get and the cleaner your code will become if you care about it.” Thanks, Jason@Devslopes.
With Jason’s indirect encouragement, I pushed forward to finish the project on which I was working. No, it’s not perfect, but I am now using Flexbox as it was intended . . . to make web development simpler. Now, when I create my parent container and line my children up as intended without trying different things and getting lost in the process, I feel like doing my “Flexbox Feeling” dance.
Although I still have a long way to go in developing beautiful websites, understanding Flexbox helped in making responsiveness so much easier. I am pressing forward. If you are feeling stuck, check out other sources for help, but keep coding and moving forward. Don’t let fear of imperfection hold you back. It will all come together in time. Here’s to believing this, and loving that “Flexbox Feeling.”