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Starting something new in life is not always easy, specially when you had no idea what to expect from that new thing. That was where I was at back in 2014, a really young kid fresh out of highschool without a single clue in which direction I was supposed to go in life. Yes, I had options but none of these were appealing to me. My deadline was just around the corner and I was still empty handed. Lucky, I had my parents help me decide where I should "take my talents" and my mom had the briliant idea of choosing computer science. Her reasoning was that I was always on computers and that I seemed to enjoy doing a kinds of crazy stuff with it. So it was decided, I was signing up for computer science classes. Though, when I was reading the description of the program, its seemed not too hard and enjoyable so I went with it. Fast forward to my first class, it was a pure nightmare. The teacher started teaching the first day which was unusual for freshmans but thats what happended. The real reason why the first class was hard was because I couldn't understand the basics.

Seeing code for the first time (in this case, css code) was super confusing and I couldn't get a hold of it. I was also struggling with web development because I was not able to make the connections. Yep, you guess it, my grades weren't great either during that time, but i still wanted to pass the class. How was I going to pull this off? I didn't know but one this I did notice was that I was not spending a lot of time studying or trying to understand the things I didn't understand. I knew I had to switch it up and so I did.

Near the end of the semester, I started putting real hours into my studies and it came down to one project, finals project of the current semester. Here is what was at stake: If I had a high grade on this project, I would pass the class. If I didn't, I would fail and start over again. During that time, I found myself doing things that I wasn't used to do: putting extra effort into homework, studying for a longer period of time, stay at school late (even on friday's). If you're wondering what was the project, well the goal was to create a memory game (that I remastered recently) and I was able to get a near perfect grade on that project thus making me pass the class. Since this day, I knew that I could do anything as long as I put enough effort and dedication into it.

When I was almost finished with college, I had a great desire to learn and to further improve my coding skills. Like always, it was also during the summer time and that was a perfect time for me to get going with the learning. The thing that was special about this summer is that I would be getting 4 months of vacation instead if the normal 3 months. I had a lot of time in my hands and I was about to used to the absolute maximum towards the grind.

What happened this summer was truly exceptional. I was so focused and hungry for knowledge that I would be coding until I couldn’t think straight anymore. This means that if could stay up for more than 24 hours, then I would do it. This sounds a little bit crazy and unhealthy but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to take my skills to the next level. I was working for so long that I could see the entire day pass; from sun up to sun down. When I would finally go to sleep, I used to sleep for more than 10 hours. Mind you, I did that all summer long and even if it was unhealthy ( I do not recommend doing this), I can proudly say that it did help me get better at coding in general and its because of this if im where I am right now.

When you have a clear purpose or when you can do what you really want to do in life, nothing will stop you from doing that thing. You will be fully dedicated to that purpose of yours and you will not want to let go. We call that passion. When you have that, you’ll invest as much time as possible in it because that’s what you like, that’s your calling.

This was it. The time had finally come. The first opportunity among many to come in the future. I had received my first offer to create a website for someone and I was super excited. The fact that I would be getting paid for my work made hyped me up even more. The offer was simple: make the best looking website possible and I would be getting paid for it.

This was exciting. So it began. I when home that day and I started working on the project right away. The fact that I had 3 weeks to pull this off made me a bit sceptical because I didn’t want to be late on the delivery. For the week that followed the start of the project, I was grinding to the maximum of my capacities. I was so focused on this project that I didn’t pay attention to anything else. No social media, no video games, no chillings, nothing.

I had set my mind up that I would finish this website in time and that’s exactly what I did. I was given 3 weeks to finish the site and it took me 2 weeks to finish it entirely. The client was super happy about it and got super hyped when he say the end result. ‘I did it!’, I told to myself. Seeing someone proud and excited about something I crafted with my imagination and by my coding skills at the time was truly something gratifying. I went and showed my latest work to my friends and they were also hyped and proud for the work. In life you’ll always remember for firsts and I will always remember this one.

I think that I knew the true meaning of grinding on something that you consider your passion when I started making mobile applications. Previously, I always told myself that I would make mobile applications (of any kind) because I was fascinated by how developers and companies would end up at the top chart of the apple store (yes I own and iPhone). I always wanted to be there myself, with the best of the best and to be able to show my work and abilities with ideas and code was my ultimate goal [still is :)]. I started learning by watching tutorials on Youtube made by the most popular youtubers when it comes to iOS app tutorials.

I found myself finishing most of the tutorials by the third day I started coding in swift. Yet again, I was not satisfied so I started to dig deeper in the web in hopes of find more tutorial hence more knowledge. By the forth day, I got the hang of swift and I pretty much knew the basics. I, then, started making my own apps from the brink of my imagination and I could stop. I was hooked! I was having so much fun creating and learning at the same time that I would spend all my days in front of the computer, just grinding. Mind you, it was during the summer time and I had no incentives to go outside. All I could think about was: ‘ill make the next big application one day but I have to work hard now’.

Few months later, I got pretty good at coding swift to the point where I no longer needed help from tutorials whatsoever. And this is where the real grind started. I found myself in a position where I would note all the ideas I had for future projects and I would work on them one at a time. With the method of building notes, I was able to make huge games and there is still plenty more to come, I can promise that. To sum it up, the moral of this story is the following: when you find your true purpose, don’t wait, start working on it right away. You wont regret it.