PreCourse.initialize

Everything starts at the beginning. So here it is, the first day of the rest of my life. The PreCourse. That is to say the course before the course, that one that gets you ready. If the main course is bootcamp then I suppose the PreCourse is the spinach, wheatgrass and kale smoothie you had for breakfast. But the very first day? That would be the cold shower that wakes you up (its cold because you think it will help you lose weight - turning the health up to 11!).

This post is about that cold shower. If you’re looking for hot showers then kindly take your business elsewhere.

If you haven’t worked it out from the title, this post is about the launch night. It probably won’t be terribly interesting but I’m working more than one angle in writing these blog posts. One such angle is locked and loaded on people like myself thinking of taking a leap of faith into something completely unknown. Some of my writing tries to answer some of the questions I never knew I wanted to ask so they can be more informed on what to expect should they choose Makers Academy to put their thang down flip it and reverse it.

It was basically like the first day of school, except the teachers give you beer. Maybe that is just like the first day at some schools.. but not any school I went to. Although I went to a catholic school. My teachers gave me the blood of christ wine. Perhaps it’s different elsewhere…

I’ll set the scene for you. Me, fashionably late, bit sweaty, bit nervous. Everyone else: not late, not sweaty, but also probably nervous - we’re all in the same boat after all. Pretty sure I was the last to arrive, everyone was already talking amongst themselves so I just wandered around aimlessly a bit till someone helpfully pointed me towards the beer. I grabbed myself a bottle and faced my first challenge of the course. It took me a good 20 seconds to open that bottle of beer with the bottle opener provided. How embarrassing, I used to work in a pub! No one was looking at me, but of course I felt like everyone was!

Not the best start to the evening, but I didn't have much time to worry about what next as we were asked to sit as the presentation was about to begin. Oh I didn't mention there was a presentation? It was only short - just served as a little guide for us on how to get through the PreCourse. It was helpful - and a good way to provide a space for us to ask any questions we had before the PreCourse really kicked off. It only lasted about 40 minutes, after that we were left to our own devices.

I managed to strike up a conversation with a few people and it just took off from there. I know I’ve described it as a cold shower but some times doing something you don’t like can be good for you. Most people that had come for the launch night stayed till they kicked us out the building - about 9pm - during that time I managed to make a few good connections though it wasn’t possible to speak to everyone. It was extremely reassuring to find out how nice and interesting everyone was, everyone had a story to tell and a unique path that lead them to Makers Academy, it was a bit like being Cilla Black on Blind Date.

 "What's your name and where do you come from?"

Sorry if you're a bit young for that reference, I'm trying my best here. 

style it out, Amanda

Since then I’ve met up with a few of them to study together and we’ve all spoken a lot on an app that gives us a space to chat in (slack). I haven’t met or spoken to everyone, but the atmosphere is so overwhelmingly positive now that we’ve started, I’m sure we’ll all get along famously. I’m really looking forward to changing my life with these guys.

If you're disappointed there was no coding in this post then don't worry, you're in for a treat next time...