For Programmers: I May Have Lost The Battle, But I Will Win The War

Dear Medium, the future of technology and creativity doesn’t only belong to the country of your choice.

Ann Adaya
6 min readJan 2, 2023
Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash

“Silent moves — loud results all 2023.”

I know we should always put our feet on the ground and stay humble no matter how high we fly, but I’ve been very patient.

I’ve remained calm for all these years, but this time, in these first couple of days of 2023, I feel like I needed to let this all out—I'm coming for the things they said I couldn't do.

The Medium blog platform has been challenging for the countries where Medium doesn’t have Stripe—I've been fighting this battle for almost three years.

Your dream is a double-edged sword—it can make or break you. Everything is perfect when things go as planned, but when things don't go as planned, no matter how hard you try, it could crash you.

This is why success is not for everyone; many accept life as it is. Warriors are built so differently because ambition and big dreams require everything from you.

In this new journey that I want to pursue, I am in no position to call writing my passion because I am far from a professional, though it has always been in the back of my mind, probably because I’ve always dreamed about it since I was young. Still, I enjoyed it very much as my way of expressing myself in a place where I feel safe and free.

English is my third language; I still have a fourth, and I still have programming languages in my bag, and yet I’m still here—I didn’t come this far only to come this far.

I’m all in.

When things get tough in your developer journey, know that there will still be so many mountains ahead of you, not to discourage you but to let you know that the journey will not be easy.

Still, it will make you do things you didn’t know were possible; you are stronger than you think, and your dream life is waiting for you on the other side of hard work and fear.

Bring it on and solve each problem one by one.

With all the wisdom and experience I've gained from my self-taught developer journey—the good, the bad, and everything in between—one of the things I wish someone had done was to at least help me avoid some of those mistakes instead of learning them the hard way.

This is the legacy I wanted to leave, especially for those who did not have parental support or a good start in life: it is possible to change your life—you are capable of achieving anything you set your mind to.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I have been so patient and understanding, but at the end of the day, I felt discriminated against.

It’s frustrating to see that humanity has come so far, yet human greed and arrogance are still out of this world.

Dear Medium platform, the future of technology and creativity doesn’t only belong to the country of your choice.

No wonder there haven’t been many Einsteins, Nikola Tesla, and Michael Angelo in our generation because of the biases and lack of support and equal opportunities for every child.

Regardless of how high all these mountains were that I needed to climb, I’ve been through worse; you can’t hurt me.

Can’t hurt me

I will keep writing and sharing my wisdom and knowledge with everyone who has been through a lot—warriors are built differently.

When I started my developer career, I received a hundred no's in job applications and interviews before receiving my first yes.

And working with all those computer science graduates and engineers humbled me; I almost got eaten up by my insecurities, but I survived it all. Looking back, no matter what path we choose—a career, a passion—we always have to deal with darkness before we see the light, and when we reach that goal and destination, it's unlike any other.

“When someone says you can’t do something — do it twice and take a selfie.”

Let’s do this

To everyone who struggles and feels like everything is sh*t, do know that I am with you—a new year is also the best reminder that we can always start again.

Forget everything and leave it behind—restart, try again.

Your dream is far greater than their opinions—show them you are capable. One of the best things I learned when I started my developer journey is that I may have gotten my first developer job in 6 months, but I have been rejected a hundred times.

Everything happened so fast, but it didn’t stop me from reaching my goal of getting that first developer job.

I genuinely believe that the universe will make way for someone who knows where they are going—so hang in there, do your best, focus on your skills regardless of what others think, be yourself, and keep showing up, no matter how uncomfortable or embarrassing it is because your dream is worth it.

Join me on this new journey, and let’s see where this year will take us. Keep looking for that dream job, as I will keep trying to do this writing career (my childhood dream was to be a writer) work.

We all have 365 days—even Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Leo Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo—so what’s stopping you? Let’s do this!

Start Here

I am happy to introduce to you my new blog site — Developercs.com

For almost three years, I've been writing on the Medium platform, not only for developers and programmers but also to write letters to our younger selves who didn't have an adult when they needed it the most and a friend who will pat us on the back for all of our accomplishments.

Developercs.com has its goal in mind: to help every aspiring programmer out there not to lose their grip when things get tough, to help them stay sane when in chaos, or even to give them a helping hand every time they stumble.

The Developer's Cheatsheet aims to be your friend, your go-to site when you need some notes technically, a guided setup for beginners, a notebook where most of the essential programming rules and mantras can be found—you can call it documentation, or a cheat sheet.

See you there!

Thank you for reading!

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Don’t forget to leave 👏🏻. You can send me as many as 50 👏🏻. As you can, it will enable me to continue writing and sharing as much valuable content, free resources, advice, and wisdom for all developers and aspiring developers out there.

As a result, we could share these articles with everyone who needed them the most—one piece at a time, one developer at a time, one dream at a time.

I would appreciate it, and thank you very much for reading!

Follow me for more Self-taught developer writings and inspiration. You can also find me on Instagram. See you there!

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Ann Adaya
Ann Adaya

Written by Ann Adaya

Software Developer, Founder/Owner: For Self-Taught Developers + Developer's Cheatsheet: https://www.developercs.com/

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