🧒 My journey into programming started in an unexpected way. I was introduced to it in my early years of high school (2018) by a friend who often talked about it. Being someone who loved anything related to software, I became instantly curious 🧐. Even though I lacked resources and a mentor, I was driven by passion and the urge to learn . It was a tough start — I had to figure things out by myself, doing intense research 🔍 just to grasp basic concepts. The first language I learned was HTML , using the pre-installed Notepad on my computer . I still remember the joy of creating my first webpage 🎉, and how that excitement grew when I successfully made page-to-page navigation 🔗. At that point, I was still a child, but I loved to learn and never gave up 💪. One day, a friend asked me why I wasn't designing my pages, and that's when I discovered CSS 🎨. I didn't even know how webpages were styled! So, I began researching CSS on my own. It wasn't easy — the syntax was different, the file extensions were unfamiliar, and some concepts were hard to grasp. It took me around two years to become comfortable, especially since I didn't have a personal computer 🧠 and was still using Notepad .
🙏 Thankfully, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic 😷, I was gifted a laptop by my Godfather after my mother told him how hard I was trying to learn coding 💻. I believe that was God’s way of showing me the right path ✨. With a proper computer, I could now explore more 🌍, and one of my first practice projects was a hotel website �. Later on, during my final years in high school, I discovered JavaScript ✨ — the third language I learned. It didn't feel too difficult at the beginning since I had already developed strong research habits 🧠 and understood how to approach learning a new language . I practiced a lot, especially focusing on DOM manipulation and JavaScript's core concepts 🔧. By then, I had become quite comfortable with the frontend , but I started to grow curious about how the backend worked . That curiosity pushed me to research more, and I discovered Python 🐍, which is widely used in backend development. I was encouraged to learn it, but I quickly realized backend development was more complex than I expected 😅. Since I was already familiar with JavaScript, I shifted my focus to PHP , which a friend recommended as easier to get started with.
😃 I was thrilled when I successfully built full-stack projects using PHP 🧱, and along the way, I also learned about MySQL for database management. These experiences really broadened my understanding of programming and helped me expand my tech stack . Later, during my vacation after high school , I decided to return to Python for backend work and chose Django as my framework of choice because of its simplicity and power ⚡. After learning it, I built a simple blog using Django to put my knowledge into practice. Fueled by curiosity and a hunger to keep improving 🔥, I went on to learn React.js ⚛️ and other frontend tools like Tailwind CSS . Eventually, I transitioned to Next.js , which has significantly improved my development workflow ⚙️ and deepened my understanding of how real-world projects are structured. That's where I am now — constantly building , learning , and growing 🌱 as a self-taught developer.