2020-2021 was supposed to be my first proper year of engineering. classes, labs, college life. instead, i spent it staring at a laptop in my room, trying to learn programming through laggy zoom calls.
the setup
my "college experience" was:
- a laptop that could barely run vs code
- mobile hotspot because wifi was unreliable
- a corner of my room that became my "classroom"
- google meet tabs open for 8+ hours a day
the first few weeks were chaos. nobody knew what was happening. professors were figuring out how to share screens. students were figuring out how to look attentive while doing something else entirely.
the good parts
here's the thing: online classes had some unexpected benefits for learning to code.
no commute = more time. those hours i would've spent traveling to college? spent learning stuff online. youtube tutorials, documentation, building random projects.
learn at your own pace. lecture recordings meant i could pause, rewind, and re-watch the confusing parts. try doing that in a physical class.
anonymous questions. asking "dumb" questions in the chat feels way less embarrassing than raising your hand in a room of 60 people.
# me during online classes
def during_lecture():
if 'interesting_topic':
pay_attention()
else:
open_another_tab()
learn_something_else()
online semester taught me that learning happens outside classrooms. sometimes despite them.
the hard parts
it wasn't all positive though.
motivation was hard. when your bedroom is your classroom, library, and hangout spot, everything blurs together. some days i couldn't get myself to write a single line of code.
no real interaction. coding is easier when you have friends to struggle with. online, everyone's just a profile picture on a call. you can't lean over and ask "bro what did you understand from this?"
distractions everywhere. youtube is one tab away. so is instagram. and twitter. staying focused required actual effort.
imposter syndrome hits different. when you see people posting their projects online and you're still doing college assignments, it feels like everyone's ahead.
how i coped
some things that helped me stay sane and productive:
building a routine
waking up at 10am for a 10am class doesn't work. i forced myself to wake up earlier, shower, and "commute" to my desk like it was actual college. sounds stupid, but it helped mentally separate "home" from "study."
finding online communities
twitter (now x) and discord became my virtual college friends. following developers, joining coding communities, lurking in servers. it felt less lonely.
project-based learning
college syllabus was boring during online mode. so i focused on building stuff that interested me. learned more from failed projects than from most lectures.
accepting bad days
some days are just unproductive. instead of beating myself up, i started accepting that it's okay. tomorrow is another day.
what i actually learned
looking back, that online semester taught me:
- self-learning is a skill — nobody's going to spoon-feed you in real life either
- environment matters — create a space for focused work, even if it's small
- community helps — find your people online if you can't find them offline
- flexibility is underrated — things won't always go as planned, adapt
- your pace is your pace — comparison is the thief of progress
the silver lining
those months of online classes, as frustrating as they were, made me more independent. i learned to seek resources, teach myself, and stay motivated without external structure.
when things eventually went back to "normal," i was better at self-learning than i would've been otherwise. that skill stuck around.
also, i got really good at looking like i was paying attention while doing something else. useful life skill, honestly.