Muscle memory is crazy! I admittedly was nervous about going forward with more HTML and CSS learning after I found myself a little bit traumatized by my lack of sophisticated web building knowledge in the Fall.
I can vividly remember trying to maneuver my way through creating CSS rules for the first time without directly following instructions in my web building last semester. It sort of felt like taking the training wheels off of your bike when you were a kid. My dad insisted that they come off, that I was more than ready to learn to ride my bike without them, but I threw a huge fit anyway. Watching him unscrew those wheels and taking them off was the most terrifying thing ever.
Like taking the training wheels off, I remember the first assignment that I found myself trying to figure out how to write my own HTML and CSS without instruction. I’ve always thought this whole time that having the power to write and create content that you also style for the web was the coolest thing on the planet. The idea that you have ~all the power~ to do and create and make whatever you want (with limited knowledge, that is) is extremely intriguing. However, I was terrified of it. I obsessively watched assignment lecture videos over and over again trying to understand why things were done a certain way, or wondering what’s the best way to organize my content, or trying to understand what I was even trying to accomplish in the first place. The most terrifying part of it all, however, was feeling like I didn’t understand anything. I didn’t understand why my rules weren’t applying, I didn’t understand why other elements I didn’t want to target were being styled instead, and I didn’t understand what some rules even meant.
This semester, I’ve learned even just in the past two weeks how important it is to be specific when writing your code. I had previously written about how much I adore the HTML Validator, but I have ultimately begun to understand the huge importance of keeping my code clear and organized. I now understand more than ever how useful it is to use IDs and classes when writing my code, and just how much easier it becomes to target these specific rules. I now understand how taking these extra steps to create organized code will save me so much headache, confusion, and frustration during the styling process. I am ecstatic to see how this can become so much more of a streamlined process than before. I’m proud of my brain for remembering and building upon it’s prior knowledge, even when it’s been sad and confused about past times of not understanding things. Specificity makes the world go ’round!