These past two weeks have felt like an eternity and yet they have flown by at the same time. A weird dichotomy. I suppose it would be best to start at the beginning. We we greeted early Monday morning by the students of Phase Two. Apparently each of them had been paired with each of us so it made meeting new people very easy. The rest of the morning was spent getting acquainted with the space and DBC as a whole. The afternoon was when the coding began. Trust me when I say we hit the ground running. For the entirety of the first week, I never left before 7 or 8 pm. The funny thing is, I didn't mind. I was loving every minute of it. By the time the first weekend rolled around, I was happily exhausted.
Week two was much like week one in that we kept going full steam ahead. I started to find my rhythm this week though so I was able to knock out what I needed to get done and still make it home at a decent hour. We continued to learn new things and I felt as though I was continually being pushed to a new level of understanding. Something that sets DBC apart from the other bootcamps out there is their emphasis on emotional intelligence and understanding your teammates. This week, we spent a good amount of time on this. I can honestly say the way I started view my cohort improved drastically as we started to open up and share more of ourselves.
There are a few key take aways that I could pass on to someone else just starting. First and foremost, be the master of your own learning. If you know something, don't do the challenge because you think it is required. Do something that is going to teach you something new. Second, take care of yourself! Get some sleep. Eat. Go for a walk. Being exhausted and malnourished will not help. Ever. Finally, don't be afraid to ask for help. You are not going to know everything and that is okay. This is not your typical school where there is shame in ignorance.
That is all for now. I intend to post again in another two weeks (schedule permitting) to keep track of my progress.