Have you ever had that feeling where your heart got punched so hard, and the neurons in your brain started dancing at 1 AM while listening to Tokio Hotel? No? just me? Okay. And at this very moment, I have finally realized that I am falling madly, and deeply, in love, with coding.
“Where the rain won’t hurt
Fighting the storm,
Into the blue,
And when I lose myself I think of you,
Together we’ll be running somewhere new”
Coding Bootcamp has been a struggle — and that’s an understatement. Feeling dumb, wanting to cry every 20 minutes and actually crying, punching a wall, screaming into a pillow, walking around like a zombie, staying up till 3 AM studying only to realize the next morning that I still don’t get it, you name it, I’ve done it.
But I have (finally) found LOVE in my struggle.
During one of our class activities weeks ago, our teacher, Sarah Cullen, showed us how to “Autofill” a text input. The demo and task were simple, the autofill was supposed to choose, which is your favorite language. Sarah had picked SQL. This, could’ve been random, could’ve been a coincidence. At that moment we have not yet learned MySQL, and this was the first time I’ve heard of it. However, this is exactly when love came in. You will always remember the first moment you saw your 6'3 crush walking outside of RedRobin holding a to-go strawberry lemonade, he was wearing a black shirt and dark blue jeans, he smiled and said: “hey — “. And just like that, MySQL came into my life and swept me away.
Just like your crush, SQL database has some types. SQL database uses exact numeric data types for integer, decimal, and money. Each data type has it's own lower and upper limits, and requirements. In this case, we should always use the smallest data type to save memory requirements. For example, we can use the bit data type for storing true (1) or false (0) values.
Properly defining the fields in your table is important to the overall optimization of the database. You should use only the type and size of field you really need to use. For example, do not define a field 10 characters wide, if you know you are only going to use 2 characters. These types of fields (or columns) are also referred to as data types, after the type of data you will be storing in those fields.
The sky is now the limit and I have become obsessed. Like everything that has to do with love, I am excited but also afraid. How could a database be so exciting, how are the numbers and texts that intertwined together made me lose myself? I am an artist, this should not be exciting, but my left brain is dancing. I want to plant more seeds, I want to keep pressing my up and down arrows — and the only space I need is the spacebar to select my data. This “darkness” feels like home.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog about my heartache in coding. But now, I have a schema for my journey; my vision in its light.
“And when I lose myself I think of you
Together we’ll be running somewhere new
And nothing can hold me back from you”
- Tokio Hotel
PS: Sam L, I couldn’t have done it and gotten this far without you and your guidance. I appreciate you beyond words.
