How I started coding (and why I never stopped)

I started without meaning to, really.

By late 2024 I was in my first years of Computer Engineering and the only thing I had seen was desktop Java. No frontend, no backend, no frameworks. One day I see Mauro, a friend, coding web stuff. He spent all day building projects, every day, all day. It was fun to watch, even though I understood nothing. I'd sit next to him trying to figure out what he was doing while he jumped back and forth between files.

Over time I started to understand a few scattered things. He offered to teach me web development, and it went lightning fast. We had to rush through everything because he was busy with other parts of a project and needed help. So he gave me a module to build myself. Nothing complex, just viewing and editing some records. But for me it was enormous. I barely knew anything and I ended up building it with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and Bootstrap. I had a blast, both building it and learning how to build it.

Over time we created UXnicorp, our tiny web development agency. Clients started coming in. I started learning new technologies, new methodologies. New people started joining the team. Everything grew little by little, almost without us noticing.

And after that whole journey, here I am. Building this portfolio. Not because someone asked me to, but because one day I woke up and realized something, I was no longer the kid who couldn't center text with CSS. I was no longer the one who couldn't figure out how to connect the frontend to the backend. I had several projects, real clients, tools, architectural decisions, learnings. I had grown.

Building this portfolio was like looking back and saying "wow, I did all this." It was to realize I could show myself as a professional, not as someone just starting out. Because I'm not starting anymore. I've been through demos, real clients, complex systems, projects that went wrong and others that turned out better than I expected.

Today I remember those first days and laugh. The times I couldn't center text and Mauro teased me. When the backend wouldn't connect to the frontend because I mistyped one letter. Those late nights learning React with Bootstrap without really knowing what I was doing. But above all I remember it was fun. Starting like that, laughing with friends, made coding never feel like work.

And if you're reading this, maybe you're in that same place I was. Understanding nothing. Watching someone else code. Wanting to learn but not knowing where to start. Keep going. It's worth it.