Learning Curves
Throughout this entire learning process there have definitely been ups and downs. I think the most difficult part I've had is dealing with imposter syndrome, where at times I feel like I'm not prepared or I can't solve some problem. That feeling hit me the hardest when I was working on one of the Amazon Alexa Skills.
The imposter syndrome hit me while I was working on the Alexa project for a culmination of reasons. First off, I had trouble navigating through Amazon Web Services and the Lambda functionality. I also felt like whenever I got an error, the output was so foreign to me that it was hard to decipher what the actual problem was. Due to the fact that Alexa is fairly new, there weren't too many forums that were able to solve the problems that I had. This was also my first time using Node.js, so with all of those factors the imposter syndrome definitely hit me hard.
However, the last thing I was going to do was give up, I've come way too far on this journey to allow one project to tear me down. I spent hours looking at the alexa documentation, sifting through forums for answers, and watching several youtube videos on alexa. Fixing one bug at a time, I was able to make the project, and it was the most gratifying feeling in the world.
As I mentioned before, I've never had quite a feeling of accomplishment as I've had when I get a project to work. The errors are gone, there is no more struggle and the end product that you've envisioned in your head sits before you, it is just pure bliss.
The main take away I have from all of this is that there are going to be times when you don't feel confident in your abilities, but it is important to trust in yourself that you know what you are doing. If you don't, then you better go back to the documentation and try and fill the gaps, which either way should boost your confidence.