This is the last week of my training, before I set out to join my team. I’m excited, a little distracted, and eager to get started. Our class is working on our largest group project to date, and I’m doing UI (as usual). However, my role on my team will be something completely different, helping out on the backend.
Our training has covered tooling, testing, and some comp-sci theory. I was already familiar with a bunch of the stuff we went over, while other things were completely new. A few of our lessons actually made concepts I thought I understood much more clear.
For example, in Swift, we use protocols everywhere, but it was not obvious to me why composition should be favored over inheritance. Now, with required testing, and having to move fast on a team (before all our components are completely written), it’s beginning to make a lot of sense.
I’ve also been exploring the city. I finally got a chance to go downtown and visit an art space 2 weeks ago, and the week after that I saw Laverene Cox speak at The Moore Theater. I love the streetart, book shops, and hippie cafes.
Downtown Seattle feels more like home than Redmond, but I also kind of like all the nature near where I live: when I go walking at night, there are bunnies grazing on the lawn by my building.
To my regret, I still haven’t gone hiking or even visited a city park. I’m trying to walk as much as I can to counterbalance sitting at a desk 8 hours a day, but my weekends are so busy, and I also need to set aside time to video chat with my loved ones on the East Coast.
This Friday, one of my favorite bands is playing, but I’m not sure if I’ll be seeing them that day. There’s going to be a lot of celebrating and saying goodbye Friday, as we all move on to our respective teams. Some of us will be together on campus, while others will be across the way, or heading back to Austin, Texas for the remainder of the program, as part of the first Austin cohort.
It’s bittersweet. I don’t know what the future brings, but I’ll be trying my best to turn it into something positive.