Learning to Be Patient with Yourself
More Coffee Please: January 27, 2022
Starting a new role in tech or navigating your first few tech classes in a degree program can be frustrating. With minimal knowledge of the basics, we can quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated with ourselves.
Back in October 2020, I stumbled upon TryHackMe, a platform with hands-on guided cybersecurity courses and challenges, and started to learn Linux. I had never really worked with a CLI (command-line interface) before and didn’t know what a terminal was, so naturally, I was scared of it.
Looking back I can vividly remember spending hours on some of the challenges that would now be a breeze to me. I remember getting so frustrated with myself that I was following the instructions and still getting a different result than what I should be or not fully understanding the task at hand. I would look at the hints provided on some challenges and become even more confused than I already was, or worse, it would help me get a few steps further and then I’d get stuck again.
I would become so frustrated with my inability to do these simple tasks that seemed so easy to others that I’d have to walk away and take a break.
This was all only a little over a year ago, but I think back and don’t recognize that girl anymore. I was 24…
