I started my journey a few years back but it wasn’t a straight forward “I want to be an iOS developer” kind of journey. I was an animation student. Animation was my life & will always have my heart. Sadly I became injured & couldn’t draw all day long anymore. So it was time to switch things up & programming had always been an interest for me. At this point I had no clue of how to program.

I began looking for some coding courses. I started out the way I think everyone starts really. The front-end web dev route. I learned HTML & CSS and started to touch on Javascript before being pulled in to Harvards CS50 course. I was fascinated, even if this course was evil.

Sadly halfway through this course, I began having some serious health issues which meant I was struggling with just existing at this point. I ended up feeling bored, lost, uninspired, uncreative & not sure what to do. I then saw a course on udemy for iOS development. It was on sale & I thought why not. I adored this kind of programming. It enabled me to do some UI design work as well as programming. As a creative this was so important to me to keep my interest. It was also a somewhat outdated course & after a while I felt a little lost once again. I felt like I wasn’t good enough & indeed I had this burning of finishing what I started with the CS50 course. So I persevered on with finishing CS50.

I was still struggling at this point with my health. (My journey into development couldn’t have been timed worse) But I somehow did it & passed with 100%. Yes you guessed it, my finial assignment (making a functional software) was indeed an iOS App Game.

I am so proud of passing CS50 & indeed the knowledge I gained is invaluable.

I have such a true base knowledge of programming regardless of the language now. I have a confidence of understanding how computers work underneath all the code that is just pure gold in terms of knowledge. I felt the pull of iOS development once again & this time started aa different course on SwiftUI. I had a run of a few months of epicness. I understood everything, I was learning a lot & then my health came back to hit me with the struggles of learning, brain functionality was bare minimum & I once again felt lost & uninspired. Thinly iPad died on me & I took it as a sign to switch to android.

I spent a good 4 months working on learning Android development as well as python (gotta be ready for AI development just in case). Whilst vastly different I had a goal of an idea I wanted to create so kept going. My health still struggling and indeed with each day that passed that niggle in the back of my mind for iOS development kept getting stronger.

The saying “Once you start iOS development you never leave” really is true!

After 4 months, I said enough is enough & I just have to stick with iOS development & get through whatever my struggle is each time as I truly do love iOS development & I keep coming back time after time. So I got myself a refurbished iPad, got my iOS environment back up & running and continued with where I left off. I haven’t looked back. A few changes in my journey of late which I will save for another post but I am striving towards becoming a full iOS developer that whilst specialises in SwiftUI ( I truly believe the future will lay here) but also be fully competent in UIKit & Swift programming in general.

For some of you who have followed me through the years on this crazy development journey, thank you for sticking around. Your support truly means the world to me & keeps me going through all the highs I get to share with you as well as the lows that I can struggle with. Programming is never easy & we will all have our ups & downs & indeed struggles of finding just where we fit into what tech stack. But having a community of people who understand all too well what you’re facing & going through feels so comforting!