I survived the first week. Just like I had anticipated, the first few weeks are going to go smoothly for me. I’m definitely still a junior front-end dev, but I feel like I’m not too far from being intermediate in terms of front end. This is not to say that I’m bored because I already know everything about HTML and CSS, because I know I don’t know everything. But I’m quite comfortable with the Bootcamp’s pacing so far.

On the first day we went through the logistics on how the program is gonna go, doing student introductions, and meeting the class staff. One thing the class staff emphasized was that it isn’t easy nor is it going to get easier.

First day we covered the Terminal. I’m quite familiar with Terminal commands but it was good going through them. Got reacquainted with mkdir, cd .., and others. Tab completion is simply magical, which is something I wasn’t in the habit of doing, but now I’m doing it all the time. The mv command is also one I always forget about. By the end of the class we covered the basics of HTML.

Day 2 was Git and Github. “Pull first, then push.” That’s the mantra, repeat it. We also started with CSS. The instructor covered selecting elements by tag, class, id, and a bit about specificity when selecting. We covered layouts by using floats.

On day three we covered some more CSS. Got some lectures on the box model and positioning elements with the position property. This is one aspect of CSS that I’ve always been confused about. The different position values like relative, absolute, and how they work and affect the box model has always been something I didn’t have a good handle on. But I think this all finally makes sense to me.

One the biggest values I’m already getting from the Bootcamp is working and talking with other people. Being able to peek at another student’s code and help each other out is hard to do when you go the ‘self-taught’ route.

Another thing that I’m enjoying is incorporating Git and Github to the development workflow right from the start. This is something that I’ve always been curious about. Can’t wait to start doing pull requests and work with a team.

I’m excited.