Jasmine Tang

Starting

I still remember the first time I am in the FullStack class.

It was a weird feeling for me. I have always been trying to get into web dev but has never been successful. Everytime I tried it, I always a roadblock with the html and css and never even got to JavaScript.

I signed up for the class because my dearly supervisor Carol from Fermilab had told me that she needed a website built. No more, no less. My line of thinking was "hey, if there's a time to get into web dev again, it is right here, right now."

And there I went...

Speeding up

It was crazy how fast we were doing it. And when I say crazy, I mean like the class was 3 unit, and we were introduced to html, css and javascript in like 3 weeks, and then off we go to build a website. The instructor Sebi would walk us through the slides and then he would go on these little demos, show-casing these knowledge into

But

It was fun. For the first time doing web-dev, it was actually enjoyable (hahaha).

I still remembered the first time I started writing my first personal website. It was crazy how fun it is. I was staying up soo late just to get the colorscheme right and the flex property right.

My first baby step

Then

It was great, everyday I was looking forward to building my website again.

But it was hard. Code wasn't actually maintainable. CSS is not the way to go and pure JSS is too much.

I turned to NextJS and TailwindCSS for comfort :'(

Then it was fun again, I started rebuilding my website with NextJS and TailwindCSS, eventually deploying it on top of my old personal website. The React-based framework combined with the ultility-based CSS framework meant that I was writing code faster and easier than ever before, tripling or quadruple my development speed compared to when I was developing the old website.

Then it suddenly hit me. I was feeling a little down. Seeing my old website being replaced by a new, more modern website left a bad taste in my mouth.

It was weird; I had been associating the old website with something that would be with me forever. I was bragging it to everyone. To Erica, to Emi, to Aeriel, to Don, to everyone. I knew then when I was writing the old website that I would need to turn to a newer tool but it still hurt so much having to say goodbye to my first little child.

It was sad, I was very sad. But just like in life, saying "goodbye" and let go might be the wiser choice...

New beginning, sad but also proud