It is expected that as a woman you find fulfilment in marriage and having children and that is true for some women. There are women out there though who wake up after years of complete dedication to husband, child(children) and home and realize "I want more to my life", "I need more in my life" Whether this wake up call is from a place of pain and hurt, a place for a need for change or simply from a place of self-reflection, do not ignore it and push it away.

A woman who is empowered is a woman who can change the world. ~Tania Stewart

My 'wake-up call' moment was sometime in 2019 and was further buttressed in 2021. My journey has led me into learning skills in Carpentry, Data Analysis ( I promise to share the stories of these acquired skills in future articles) and now Software Engineering.

I know there are alot of women out there like me; married over 10years, in her 40s, seeking a second chance. A chance to make another kind of mark in the world. The 'what' is already known to them and perharps the 'how' as well but they find there aren't alot of opportunities out there for 'second chances' and for those that exist, not alot cater for women ages 30 to 50. Despite how rare it is to find such opportunities, I am a living testimony on why you should not give up on that change you desire.

What worked:

• Tailoring my social media so that my feeds were filled with posts about the fields I was interested in pursuing. In twitter for example, select topics to follow that will tell you more about the fields you are interested in. I discovered alot of tweets sharing different and numerous opportunities this way. So, dear sister, maybe let go of those gossip blogs and unfollow some of those celebrities😀

There were opportunities I pursued that didn't yield any traction in my journey, opportunities that almost made me change my mind about 'my change' but I am so glad I continued my search because I found Arit Developer. I found in her a soul sister: a focus on reaching out to women like me that I simply had to reach out to her. The icing on the cake: she was already established in a field of interest and was willing to help women into that field, first by offering to pay for registration fee into AltSchool Africa software Engineering program and then starting the Frontend Learning Group for Women

This single tip has brought me to the start of my software engineering journey in Frontend. My next article will focus on my attempt at a HTML/CSS profile card challenge before and after I learnt HTML/CSS. You do not want to miss it.✨

• Finding a structured learning platform like FLGW. You will find alot of bootcamp out there but believe me when I say once you see that they do not have a well structured learning platform, do not continue with them. Look out for how their channels on Slack (an app mostly used for the communication community for most of these bootcamps or programs), are structured. If moderators and team leads are easily identified. If important channels restrict irrelevant chats. Ensure that lessons and activities are well structured. Even though you can learn at your pace, you still need to know you can keep up with the pace of the organisers and most of the other participants in the program.

Where ever you are in your journey of change, know this to be true:

There are true programs out there that are genuinely People-focused and not just grant-money focused ~Titi Oduwole

• Never loose focus on your goals. Why do you need this change?: Is it just so you can appear as professional as against wife/mother(a title being snobbed more lately)? Is it just to get another qualification that you can boast about but do nothing with? Is it just to increase your earning power? Is it just to build human capital?

Never losing focus will keep you going, will keep you steadfast and will inform you on when your journey has come to an end.

My focus is to make a difference, to be a solution provider. I am keeping these goals forever in my mind and it has brought me here: starting my journey in Frontend engineering and that same focus will see me through every stage of this journey.

@GiftedLane on twitter wrote

-there's no "I started late" you start when you start

You can start.

Douglas Lumsden shared this inspiring tweet on the 19th of July 2021

Now you no longer have any excuse.

Just start!

🌹rose-coder