Hi! I’m Sara, and I’m hoping to let you get to know me a little better by answering some of the questions I’ve heard more frequently over the last few years on socials. If you have a question and don’t see it here, feel free to drop a comment below!
Your bio lists a lot of what you like to do, but what do you do for work?
I’ve been an emergency services dispatcher and call taker (or “9-1-1” in the U.S.) for over 10 years, in addition to: jailer, administrative assistant / office specialist of various sorts, apartment manager, cage cashier at a casino, other types of cashier, rural carrier associate for the post office, and, for a few summers, baker for my local Farmer’s Market.
Where are you from?
Made in Iowa, currently in Oregon! I’ve moved around a little in my life, mostly in the Midwest, but moved to the West coast a few years ago. I can’t get over the weather- how I’ve barely needed a winter coat- or seeing roses in bloom in October. It’s amazing.
How long have you been learning programming?
I started learning toward the end of 2019, just a few months before COVID really picked up. There would be a couple of months here and there when I got back into learning- front end web development, databases, video games- but I wasn’t able to start learning steadily again until July 2024. That’s when I had the idea for this site and started learning what I needed to in order to be able to build it!
What’s been your favorite as far as learning?
Learning how to build and design video games is so much fun! I’m not great at it, and am so bad at testing them that I couldn’t progress any further at the time in learning :D. But it really is a good time, and maybe one of these days I’ll be good enough to design a game even I can play.
Why does your “about me” page look like an old “MySpace” page?
I knew I’d need an “about” page but couldn’t decide how to design it and wasn’t really feeling any of the ones I saw in tutorials. Then I started thinking about the info that goes into one, which made me think of MySpace, which led me to searching up screenshot images from when it was the absolute best website to be on. I *loved* being able to code in my own colors, way before I had any interest in learning anything more about coding, and being able to hear someone’s playlist is so personal to me. I knew I had to figure out how to build a similar-looking page without the “social” part of it.
Who taught you how to do all of this?
A hundred different websites, YouTube tutorials, blogs written by people who were working through their own problems, and all sorts of tutorials and documentation for the various languages I needed to use. I also sometimes got help/tips from other developers on Twitter, when it was Twitter; I’m not sure the developer community is still very active there, though. I’m happy to get more specific in another post, but for now, know that it was 100% online and 80% free information.
How do you stay motivated?
Having a specific project in mind has really helped, but lacking that, I like to set goals for myself such as:
- Complete 1% of a specific course each day (so that it’s completed in 100 days)
- Making a list of mini-projects I want to do and just start on one
- “Code for 500 hours in one year” – I’m currently working on this one. There used to be a “#100DaysOfCode” challenge that tons of people participated in, including me! The idea was to code for 1 hour per day for 100 days, which I was able to do religiously one time through. As it turns out, I work better when I’m able to do 2-3 hours of coding one day, none the next, and have all of it average out in the long run. I say do whatever you know will work with your schedule and keep you challenged enough to keep going, but not so overwhelmed and frustrated that you feel like you have to keep starting over, or wait until after the holidays, or… you get the idea.
What I’ve learned, especially since I’ve had to start over in my progress so many times, is that if I come to a time period when work or family or life in general makes learning something new too hard, it is better to review than to stop completely. Just staying familiar with the terminology and structure of the basics will give you a strong platform to start from when you are able to start learning new things again.
What’s next?
As of now, I’m all about maintaining this site- adding more locations to my “travel” page as I’m able, working on chalk drawings for my “gallery” page, trying out new recipes and posting to Instagram, and hopefully finding/”meeting” more people who are learning and creating as well! I am inspired by people who are passionate about almost anything, whether I’m directly interested in the topic or not; their energy and love for what they’re doing inspire energy and love for what I’m doing.
That’s all for now! Again, if you’ve got any questions, I’d love to hear them, and if you’ve been enjoying yourself and want to buy me a coffee, you can do that here. Thank you!