PRECOURSE WEEK 4 part 1 {just rōnin around like a chicken with its head cut off}

Kata (型 or 形 literally: "form"?), a Japanese word, are the detailed choreographed patterns of movements practised either solo or in pairs. The term form is used for the corresponding concept in non-Japanesemartial arts in general.[1]

When I perform a "Google" search for "Kata Japanese meaning", the first thing that pops up is the excerpt above. In Codewars, a site that allows programmers to develop their skills with challenges that increase in difficulty, each challenge is called a "Kata", and each new level is called a "kyu", like the belt levels that can be acquired in various martial arts. Given the aforementioned definitions, it seems perfectly appropriate that I am a Rōnin at Makers Academy.

Just like a Rōnin in the Japanese sense of the word, I have no master. Although I'm not a "samurai" per se, I am a wandering soul existing in a time and place where many expect someone like me, with a degree from a top notch university to already have a career. Well, it wasn't until I fell into this field that I started to finally understand what I wanted.

It is now week 4 of the precourse, which means the full-time course starts next week. I am apparently the first ever Rōnin to have a time difference of 5 hours, so hurray for waking up at 4 am every day! It's hard to believe a month has already passed and that in 3 short months I will officially be available for hire as a developer. It is especially hard to believe this as I sit at my desk, violently tapping my pen, shaking my head at my own "noobiness" or pulling down on my face in agony at some seemingly unsolveable kata on Codewars. I pace, I laugh ironically at the horror that is my ugly code (which usually has at least one too many or too few "end"s), I make infinite loops like it's my job. (CTRL 'c' to the rescue!) Again and again I realize how far from "easy" this course is going to be. But unlike what the old Japanese convention used to dictate about a samurai with no master, I will not give up. I will have no shame asking people in my cohort the noobiest of questions and posting embarrassing questions to Github like a CHAMP.

Because everyone has to start somewhere, and even a samurai without a master can make it and become something great.