At last...

So things have been insane for me since I started back to school for my second semester in September, which is evident by my lack of time or energy to post on my blog.But yesterday, I turned a corner. Why? How? Well I'll explain. My web developer classes have been kicking my booty all semester, very challenging and time consuming to say the least. On top of that, I was worried that, although I have dreamed about becoming a web designer for ten years, once I took the classes I would find that either 1.) I am not intelligent enough to understand the material, or 2.) I would get the material but find that I didn't "like" it after all. Until yesterday, those two fears were still lingering in the back of my mind.
    The day started off normally enough. My first class at 8 a.m.(I am not a morning person for those of you who do not know me personally, so this is a rough start to any day for me!) is Web Design I, where I am learning how to use Adobe's Dreamweaver CS5 program to create and publish web sites. Up till now, I have been very disappointed with this class. The instructor is not familiar enough with the current version of this program and we have not had enough hands on time to really get immersed and get comfortable with it. However, yesterday, she shifted gears and gave us our final project (actually, our only project), which was to come up with ideas for a web site and to create a simple sketch of each idea. Then, as I thought about what I would like to do and then sketched my four different ideas, I went back over them to figure out what my limitations would be in executing each idea. And as I visualized what it would take to turn my sketches into web pages, I realized that I could execute all of them, that I knew enough to actually bring those designs to life in the way I imagined them! I actually know enough now to be quite dangerous!!! It was a wonderful  epiphany. But it gets better...
     My next class is right after at 10:15 a.m., Introduction to Computer Programming Logic and Design. In this class, we are learning about programming logic and design using a program called Alice, which eliminates the syntax issues involved in actual programming, to help us learn the basics of writing good code. As the instructor was going over the solution to the homework we turned in, I realized that the solution he was showing had many more lines of code in it than what I had turned in, even though my program worked just fine. Then he said there was another solution to the problem and showed us that piece of code, but again, this one had several more lines of code than my solution, which had only one line of code. I was really feeling bummed out that I had not "gotten" this solution. But then, he said there was one more way to write the code to solve the problem, "probably the best way," is a direct quote, and then he wrote out what I had come up with on my homework!!! I could have flown to the moon and back! I'm getting it, I'm getting it, I'M GETTING IT!!!! That is all that kept running through my head, lol, and this feeling of relief and joy. Relief because I am getting it, and joy because I love it! Champagne all around...but wait, there's more...
     My last class of the day is at 5:30 p.m. and honestly, it is the most difficult. It is Interactive Animation, where we have been learning to use Flash CS5, Fireworks CS5, Soundcut Pro and lately, a little bit of Java with the action scripting 2.0 portion of Flash. There is soooo much homework in this class, a quiz every week that requires a re-creation of some sort of animation, exercises thrown in here and there, that also require creation of some animation, and then we have a big project always looming, since the beginning, each of which takes hours upon hours to complete. The instructor lectures almost from start to finish for two straight hours and crams so much information into that two hours, that I always feel like my brain has been used for "kick the can" by the end of the night. Sometimes, after this class, I go visit my friend Julie to unwind, and she can verify that I have been basically incoherent after class at times. But I digress. During last night's class, the instructor was showing us how to add action scripting to buttons to make them do certain things. At one point however, she ran into a problem and had to come up with a solution on the fly. Her solution involved creating a second button layer in the timeline, which is really not something you want to do. In my head, I thought I had a better idea and while she gave us a break so she could create a solution, I created my own solution and not only did it work, but I did not have to create a second button layer. Talk about icing on the cake, with sprinkles and even a cherry on top. My brain is connecting the dots. I understand most of what my instructors are talking about and if not, know I can figure it out between my textbooks and online resources. My questions are about things two steps ahead and based on combining what I have learned in all three of these classes. And I love, love, love it all! What a day...I'll be riding this wave for a very, very long time. Christmas? Nothing for me Santa, I'm good!