Getting my Rails project done was like climbing a mountain–NOT because the curriculum was so super difficult, but because my life took a super sharp, horrible turn.
I started Flatiron in September of 2019 and had planned to finish the self-paced curriculum by June of 2020. I was rocking along through my first project when I was notified that my father wasn’t doing well. My parents lived 1200 miles away from me, but I decided I needed to take a trip there for a week to see for myself.
Sure enough, he wasn’t doing well. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s a few years earlier and then Lewy Body Dementia about 6 months before my visit in November. I could see that my mother was not receiving adequate help so we began to plan that they would make an extended trip to Oklahoma, as soon as possible.
By the end of January, it became clearly evident that my parents were going to have to move; an extended trip wasn’t going to help and travelling was becoming increasingly difficult for my father.
So to make a long story short, in February, I made the trip from Oklahoma to Idaho, loaded up as much stuff as we could take on a plane, and my parents moved in with my husband and I. I couldn’t work on anything the three weeks they lived with us, but I decided to just enjoy my time with them and get back to it when they found their own place.
We found a house for them pretty quickly, just a few miles away from us and I thought I would get back to work as soon as they got settled in. March passed and my father seemed to be doing well, and I managed to complete some lessons in-between doctor visits, therapy appointments and just normal daily care of my parents. We planned a vacation to the beach with my parents in May. I kept working here and there, trying to make the days I was able to work count.
May was almost a complete bust, between getting ready for vacation and then going on vacation. I re-committed myself to working as much as possible in June and was able to finish up my Sinatra in July and start on Rails while I was waiting for my project review.
My father took a turn for the worse, right after my project review, and most of my time was spent sitting with him and my mother. On July 28th, my father died.
Sometimes, life throws big roadblocks in your carefully laid plans. You can either give up or keep on going.
###I KEPT ON GOING!!
One year and four days after I started Flatiron, I began to build my Rails project. It’s already been a longer journey than I anticipated but I intend to keep on going.
In my next blog post, I will tell what I learned from completing my Rails project.