I left this Codecademy lesson probably more confused than when I started. I found myself searching for whatever code would allow me to progress to the next page with very little to no grasp of what I actually did. No matter how many times I looked back on what I did, I could not figure out why or how I managed what it is I did.

My JavaScript experience in Codecademy was like night and day to how I felt when I had completed HTML. And yes, I do know that HTML and JavaScript should not be compared because we’re talking about two way different things, but it’s a pretty bad feeling to be sitting behind your computer for hours and still not feel that overwhelmingly short rush of victory once it is completed.

I would prefer the answers to be given to you at some point beyond just hints because at several points in this lesson, I found myself just completely off-track. I read one of Rob’s posts before and he made a good point that because there’s no such thing as really cheating, there is no reason why the answers could not be displayed somewhere. After hearing from our guest speakers, I understood that programmers often grab and add-on to other codes they find, so it’s not like it would take away from our learning if we had them as an option. By not having them, I found myself focusing more on how to complete this task on time, rather than really learning. Also, I’m curious if I’m just an extremely slow learner or if these assignments are taking everyone over 7 hours to figure this stuff out.

Now that I’ve complained this entire post, I will admit that I do understand why JavaScript is so necessary for a website to really catch and keep your attention. Even the most basic interactive websites use JavaScript and knowing that, I will continue to struggle but try as hard as possible to figure this out before the semester is over.