1. Introduction
My introduction to programming began at the age of 11 when my dad temporarily gifted me a VAIO laptop (don't exactly remember which model was it but my dad, uncle and grandpa used it so it was a pretty old laptop). He just taught me a few tags in HTML like headings, p, span, div etc..., some CSS styling rules, and a little bit of javascript. Just a bit from here and there to build simple UI from scratch on a web page. Since childhood, I had a hobby of collecting and building Lego sets, and the same felt to me with programming, building something piece by piece. That is probably why I gained a passion for it. It is not only about coding/IT, it can also be applied to anything: just take control and let your imagination flow.
2 Web Development
2.1 HTML, CSS (2018)
So, in the summer of 2018, I was 11 years old, and as I started learning HTML and CSS myself, my main source of information was YouTube and Google, which of course every programmer uses when researching stuff. I used w3schools for learning the basics of every programming language actually, because it is probably the best website there was at the time to do it, and used some YouTube tutorials to gain the basic of the language. Then when I learned HTML and CSS I actually started implementing them and started creating some small websites, like a small portfolio website, and animations with CSS and even learned how to responsively design for different resolutions (Mobile, Tablet, PC, etc...).
2.2 JavaScript: The Real Adventure Begins (2019)
At the age of 12 (2019), I started learning probably the most important aspect of programming to this day for which is JavaScript. And unlike HTML and CSS, this was an actual programming language. So, I watched this 3-hour YouTube tutorial by the OG himself: Beau Carnes from freeCodeCamp (Learn JavaScript - Full Course for Beginners), which taught me the basics of JavaScript and basic but important programming concepts like variables, functions, loops, and even OOP concepts. Then I dedicated time to mastering core concepts such as DOM manipulation, event handling, and asynchronous operations, which were more advanced topics for me at the time to comprehend, but learned them anyway. So now, that I know the trinity of web dev: HTML, CSS and JavaScript, I started building some mini tools as every other web dev does like creating burger menu animations for the navigation bar or creating scrolling animations (parallax) with javascript which solidified my understanding of web development and small details in it. After learning all these different techniques, I started coding full front-end websites.
2.3 JavaScript Frameworks (end of 2019)
At the end of 2019 (before covid), concurrently, I advanced my JavaScript expertise by adopting frameworks that prioritize scalability and maintainability. React.js introduced me to component-driven architecture and state management. At the time I was watching a popular YouTube channel called "Clever Programmer", in which at the time they were hosting a series of live streams where they building modern web applications like real-time chatting apps and some clone implementations of real apps like Netflix clone, Instagram clone, Twitter clone and etc... With these I learned tools like Redux, Firebase and even building full-stack web applications with MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js). But, I after watching a couple of videos about MERN stack and full-stack development overall, at the time, it was really complicated for me to learn backend development, since I was very young and my brain just could not process that much information. But since I wanted to keep developing these apps I kept using Firebase, which was pretty much an alternative (not really) for backend dev (Handling Authentication, Storaing Data, Real-time data etc...).
3 Python and Unity
3.1 Beginning of Covid: Discovering Python (2020)
When Covid hit everything changed. School stopped. Social life stopped. Everything stopped. Actually right before covid (January) my family migrated to Istanbul, so that was also a big change for me. We were staying in a small apartment, and since the lockdown period started I needed a way to kind of entertain myself. At the time, my dad and I changed laptops, he gave me this old Microsoft Surface Laptop, which was relatively better than the previous one, and he even got me a monitor. But like my other peers at the school, I did not play that many video games, especially the ones like Fortnite, and the reason being my laptop could basically not handle it since it was old. But it could handle games like Minecraft, so I played that mainly, and the other games that were really popular at the time which was Among Us, so I played that with my brothers occasionally to keep myself at least a little bit entertained. As I was watching everyone play video games, I wondered to myself that what if I create my own video game? So that is why I started learning Python to do so. And this time I was actually on the grind, coding 24/7, because, I was home all day long. I again followed the w3schools guide for Python and a couple of tutorials on the internet. Since the concepts were really similar to JavaScript, I gained the hang of it really quickly, in like 2-3 days. So afterwards, I started playing around with libraries, since Python is known for its enormous collection of different libraries. First I created some small console-based apps like guess the number game and quiz games. Then I learned the Tkinter library to build UI apps, and I built apps like hangman and a basic calculator app. And then after I discovered the 2 libraries which were turtle and pygame, I started actually creating real 2D games. First I used turtle library for a bit and created small games like Space Invaders and Flappy Bird. Then, as I learned pygame I created even more complex games like full platformer game with levels and an adequate menu UI and with Physics (which I completely coded myself btw), racing game, hangman and etc. . I wish I saved some of these projects on my github but I simply lost them, but some of them remain.
3.2 Exploring Unity (2021)
In 2021, I started to learn how to create these fancy 3D games using a game engine called Unity. This game engine required the programming language C#, so I learned that, and it was also relatively easy but I have been introduced to a new concept which was OOP. But I was also a little bit familiar with it so learned it quickly. Then after watching some playlists of the legendary unity youtube channel Brackeys. Afterwards, I created some fun unity games and probably the best was probably a simple 3D platformer game where go through different levels and challenges, and it is basically like a speedrun, since you have time involved. Also created my version of the "Doodle Jump" game. But this did not continue a long time until I went back to web dev..
4 The Comeback Of Web Development
4.1 Vue.js (2022)
So, in 2022, when I was around 15, my uncle , who is a specialist in this field as well, sent me a free course on Vue.js development. When I was going through it I noticed that it was really similar to React, though a bit different also. Its syntax was way simpler than React. I noticed with its simplicity you could code amazing websites way efficiently. So when I finished the course he recommended, I bought another course in Udemy which taught how to integrate Firebase with Vue.js to create full-stack web apps, so I did that. After few weeks I created my first full-stack app which is a simple social networking app Post App (I know, not the best name). I implemented features like Auth, Data Storage, Real-time data and PWA integration. After this project I created some other websites with tools like TailwindCSS.
4.2 Nuxt.js (2022-2023)
Later, I learned a sub framework of Vue.js which was Nuxt.js, which was also recommended by my uncle, and this was a game changer. It is a really powerful tool for building apps. After learning Nuxt.js I actually collaborated with my uncle and we created the sozler.im web app, in which you basically have a big collection of quotes. Even though the website is only in Azerbaijani you can still use a Google Translate extension and translate every page like that., but I will implement the translation feature soon.
5 Conclusion
From 2023 to 2024 I haven't done much coding except few freelance projects for clients, since I had my school exams and etc. But since the beginning of 2025 I have actually was working on the development of this website and few other coding projects. Thank you for reading until the end of this blog post.