Pursue what you Love and Enjoy
28 Aug 2023
During COVID-19’s pandemic years I spent my early lockdown days doing nothing but playing videogames—specifically, the latest Animal Crossing game on Nintendo Switch. One day after having spent the whole day playing Animal Crossing, I asked myself, “What am I doing with my life?” Realizing I had wasted so much time and money of my years in the past playing Nintendo games with nothing to show for it now, I decided to quit video games altogether and find new hobbies that would benefit me in the long run. Throughout the rest of the lockdown period I started working out, reading, and finding new intellectual hobbies. Throughout this self-worth journey I found two new interests that I grew to become very passionate in: Programming and Japanese-language.
Japanese
I studied Japanese in high school but nothing much came out of it after graduating. I decided to revisit the language and earnestly studied to take the world-wide Japanese Language Proficiency Test which many jobs use to scale workers in hiring processes. My studies started with free YouTube videos but soon I began to look for more help making connections with online tutors who live in Japan. My studies expanded and the yearning for more knowledge grew and for the first time in my life I was actually excited to buy textbooks. I bought hundreds of dollars worth of textbooks and studied everyday. My studies ultimately accumulated in me passing the JLPT N3 level a few months ago. I’m currently studying for the next level JLPT N2.
Programming
I learned how to program in Java and started creating very simple java programs through YouTube videos and free online recourses. After expanding this interest I applied for an online coding boot camp where I learned Full-Stack Web Design through their online curriculum.
I absolutely enjoyed my time at the coding boot camp. I learned so much from my mentors and within a few short months I was creating my own web applications. Many of my early web applications were Japanese study apps that I created to simultaneously practice both of my newly found passions.
You can see some of my early web apps on my Projects page