New Year's Javalution

Days since I decided to learn Java: 10 Days

With the new year beginning, I am met with a challenge that I have not been faced with in more than 9 years......Finding a job!

February 8th is supposed to be my last day as an employee of CompUSA and my skills are pretty much maxed out doing Helpdesk Support. So, I just figure that this is God's way of promoting me to bigger and better things. I know that I'll be alright, but it's time like these where He really shows who He is. I just have to be encouraged and continue to feed myself with positive things to hold fast to the truths that I know in my heart. In the meantime, I realize that it's time for a change in career. So, I have decided to take on programming. I've always been really interested in how computers work on a software level. Long gone are the days where I sat in a Computer Literacy classroom.

I contacted my uncle Bruce who lives in Maryland who happens to be a manager over developers who are contracted by the government. I've also gotten some timely advice and guidance from the programmers that I work with. So, Bruce suggested that Java would be a great programmig language to start out with because of it's ease of use and minimal cost to learn. I've gotten a couple of books from the library. This one book that I got, "Introduction to Object Oriented Programming in Java", by Thomas C. Wu is actually pretty good. It's really easy to understand. I also take advantage for the time being, the free online training that CompUSA offers along with some online training that I received from a technology staffing company that I just signed up with. This is a list of things I pretty much understand at this point.

• Classes and their associated objects which are instances of classes
• How to use predefined classes
• Creating comments
• Proper Naming conventions
• How to declare objects
• And a little bit about method declarations.

I'm really having a lot of fun learning and I get excited when I get a good grasp of different concepts and terminology.

Well I start school in a couple of weeks. I'll be shooting for a Level 1 Programmer certificate from the local community college. I'm really hoping that by the Summer, I can take my Java certification exam, but if it takes to the end of the year that will be fine too.

My dream is to be able to not only make a nice living, but to set myself and my family up to be able to take part in some of the extra things that life has to offer. More than anything, I want to make sure that I can help others. I never want to be in the position where I cannot easily market my skills.

God, I pray that I continue to seek you Kingdom and your Righteousness. Bless all that I do. May I hear you loud and clear and never doubt you when you are silent. Give me confidence to be the very best that I can be.

Amen.