“So what does that do,” she asked
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said
“Try me” she replied wide-eyed with curiosity.
“ It’s a web service with a backend database” he replied with hostility and a God complexed tone to big for him
“ Whats a database and … “ she questioned still deeply curious with a less confidence and a hint of frustration.
“ See I told you, I need to finish this” he replied colder than ever shutting her down
“Okay” she answered and she walked away disappointed.
My conversations usually went in a similar fashion when I would try to show any curiosity towards learning from someone more versed with technology. I would feel like a pest and it would fill me with this strong sense of shame and this dark idea that maybe I just wasn’t smart enough or even worse some people were just born for technology and maybe I wasn’t. Although I feel there are some people born with amazing minds, these days I am a believer that you can be a master in anything with hard work and persistence.
Not to say I am a master at the moment but I have come a long way from that young girl terrified of anything besides a for loop and an if statement. To that girl bold enough to write a tech blog.
And that was because I was that girl who just couldn’t shake that little voice in her head that needed to know how something worked, what are the building blocks in this thing I would ask myself, what does the internet really do? And I would spend nights watching videos online trying to figure out how it all worked. Sometimes I would just get it but sometimes it will take longer and even though there are still some things I don’t understand, I keep pushing.
Although I feel I got to this place mostly on my own and I know most tech people argue that tech is just something you have to learn by yourself, I really don’t know where I would be without those people who would give me words of encouragement like “if this is where you want to be, go for it after all people Marie Curie had, even more, obstacles and look at what she achieved”
Those little voices gave me the courage to not give up and I hope to be that little voice to people, because I am a strong believer that in the world we live today, tech is an integral part of our everyday lives and it would be a shame if we loose able minds in any generation because of this hostility to new learners.
That was why I was so happy to give a tutorial with Africode (check out their website here), A great community to inspire and knowledge share. They also provide a platform call AfricodeX where they provide African kids with monthly webinar series. Giving a webinar was a great experience even though I was really nervous, as I always feel I have so much more to learn.
Anyway, I taught on NoSQL databases and decided to share the video on here and I hope you get something out of it and if you an expert in your field I hope it makes you want to go out there and teach more
I know today’s post has been kind of emotional and different from the usual; let me know what you think of this post. Do you want more post like this? And don’t forget to follow just a tad bit random on Twitter and Instagram.
– Bunmi Aworanti is a software developer with interests in disciplines as varied as theatre, engineering, and design. She blogs bi-monthly at https://justatadbitrandom.com