My father has cancer(s)

...(thyroid and thymic cancer) and Myasthenia Gravis. My mother is undergoing dialysis and have problems in her spine. I never taught that taking care of my parents would help me in learning HTML and CSS. I learned that people are generous, I now appreciate small progress, and I learn to be decisive.

People are generous

Last April, my father got pneumonia. He got ventilated. Everyday, we're hoping for quick improvements but it didn't happen. Until one day, the nurse informed us that our health insurance were already maxed out. We now have to buy the medicines. They were expensive. So I decided to ask for help from family and friends. They didn't disappoint us. We raised around Php 600,000 ($12,000). The biggest donation even came from a complete stranger! It was enough to pay the bills.

There's no difference in learning front-end web development. People are willing to help if you know how to ask. Once, I was stuck in CSS. After watching a talk on Youtube, I asked this expert for clarification. She responded and gave me some great advice. When I came across this online course, I asked the author on how to get started. He answered me and even gave a free pass to his course!

Appreciating small progress

When my mother started having intense back pain, she can't do almost anything alone. It's hard. My father has cancer and now my mother can't walk. To heal her back pain, the doctor advice her to exercise daily. She started the exercises with the help of a therapist. At first, it seems like nothing is happening. The pain won't go away fast. But as soon as she got better, my mother started exercising on her own. She's persistent and follow the routines daily. Now, she can walk with a cane around our house and do things with minimal help.

I started web development with a mindset that I can find a shortcut. Lots of articles online make it look like learning web development is easy as 1-2-3. Big mistake for me. It makes learning slower and more confusing when there's no progress. So I changed my strategy and focus on learning small things daily. If I memorized and used a few new CSS properties today, that'll be a win for me. If I created a website with a basic component, that's progress. A lot of times I still got stuck. But I now know how to be patient and focus on small daily improvements.

Decisive

After we learned about my father's cancers, we started asking for advice from doctors. I taught that there are clear solutions that we can follow. But once we started getting these opinions, it become overwhelming. Besides, people we know also want to give advice. Searching online adds to the confusion. For example, opinion varies about the treatment for thyroid cancer. It's not easy because making a mistake will only worsen the situation. But at the end of the day, we have to make a decision. We learned that we need to get opinions but at the same time make a decision based on what's best for us.

When I started out in learning web development, I taught that it will be straightforward. But that's not the case. A lot of materials with different approach are available online. Even experts don't always agree about the best practices. This is confusing for me. I got paralysis by analysis. One day, I realized that I'm not making progress by comparing these options. To avoid getting stuck, I decided that I'll have to choose one and stick to it. I can always change. This is not a life or death situation. I have to try a lot of things. I also realized that I can learn from diverse opinions and combine them to make my own practice.

Conclusion

I never taught that the situation with my parents will help me in learning HTML and CSS. I'm no way an expert in HTML and CSS. I'm still at the very bottom of web development. But no matter what, I now know how to ask for help, appreciate small progress, and be decisive. My father's cancers and my mother's health issue are still a big problem. But instead of whining, I tried to learn from it as much as I can.

I'm looking for work to continually support my parents. If you have an opening for a remote front-end web developer and willing to hire people who aren't proven, please let me know! TIA.

twitter: @juniusfree
email: juniusfree@yahoo.com