Hi there! My name is Rawan, I'm a 23 years old Palestinian girl, who was born in Gaza, lived her childhood in Bethlehem and teenage years in Hebron, I come from a mixed family, my father is Palestinian but my mother is Algerian, I have three brothers and two sisters, my favorite colors are black and red, my favorite seasons are Spring and Autumn, I love singing, dancing, languages and traveling. And if you want to know more about me, just keep reading.
Education & Career:
I finished high school in 2014 and had no money nor moral support to go into college, so I stayed at home doing nothing for a little while, I got depressed so I had to get out and start a life of my own, I started working as a retail worker at a clothes shop, then a secretary, a seller at a cake shop, then I worked in a cosmetics shop and stayed there for year. Throughout my work I always felt misplaced, I didn't want to do these things, I wanted something special, not to degrade these businesses or anything, but I didn't want to invest my time and skills to make someone else's dream bigger, I wanted to work on my own dreams, and my dreams needed a lot of money and free time, and those jobs paid very little since I'm a girl, and took all my time, I worked from 8am - 6pm, so when I got home I barely had time to eat and sit with my family for a little while before I neededto go to sleep, I had no social life, no friends, nothing, I was isolated, I always wanted a way out but all the opportunities needed money and connections and I had neither. Till one day I heard one of my friends mention a free program that teaches you stuff like sewing, architecture, and secretary, so I left my job and enrolled in it, I really liked it because not only was it free, and gave you a diploma -which is the only kind of degree I could afford- but it had two great teachers who actually cared about you as a person and wanted great things for you, so I came first and had an internship in a great company for one month, I learned a lot and met nice people who appreciated my work, although there were two other girls there who came from college, they liked me better because unlike them, I took the internship seriously.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a job afterwords that paid well with my degree, so I ended up working in a tailor's shop as a beginner so I can learn sewing and make a career out of it, maybe then I could have enough money to do what I actually love, but I dropped out after only two months because the salary wasn't great and I had to get a better paying job to help my family financially, and ended up at my current job as a cleaning lady at a small company which surprisingly pays better than a job I would get with my Secretary degree, yeah that's how much education means in my country.
Interests:
- Learning
- Languages
- Music & Dancing:
- Books
Maybe by now you noticed my love for learning new, interesting things, maybe not, but let me tell you that I really do love it and try to learn new things, and I really hate that my country takes education only as a business and as something to only get a job out of, especially since we are occupied by Israel, they really should make the best education system in the world and make it available for all, maybe only then we could really have our country back.
I just
I guess this started when I was a thirteen years old girl, my older brother used to watch a lot of American movies and I just hated it, but I had nothing else to do, we only had one tv and no computers or smartphones at the time, I had no friends too so I had no choice but to sit with him and watch, I think I hated it at first because I didn't understand the language, and the translation was gone before I could read it, but little by little I developed my fast reading skills and I actually started understanding some of the language,and I asked my brother's help with the words I didn't know and started to form a connection between what I hear in movies and what I learn in school, soon enough I knew more words than anyone in my age or older than me, and I was popular in school for being smart in English and it became my favorite subject in school because I got really good grades in it without even studying for the tests, and now I'm hoping to major in English at college someday.
Music is quite amazing, I think it's a universal language, you could hear a song from a language that you don't understand, and you would have no idea what they are saying, but you still feel it, if not from the way the singer is emotionally singing it, at least the music itself will move you, it might even become your favorite song, I don't think it only happens to me, just look at Despacito or Gangnam style, they went through the roof in countries that didn't speak nor understand a word of them, and I think that is what makes music so magical. Other than that, I just love singing and I hope I can take singing classes in the near future and learn a musical instrument as well. You can find here a short list of a bunch of foreign language songs, that I absolutely love, but don't understand a word of.
My love for music got me interested in dancing too, as a little girl I used to fight with my siblings on who gets the TV, because they used to air this great dancing show called So You Think You Can Dance, and I was just in love with it and I really wanted to get on that stage and dance like them. I think in another life, with no religious or cultural strings I would have been a great dancer, or at least one that had fun dancing and taught other people how to dance and watched them smile while doing it. I always wanted to learn how to do ballet, but that's just something for me to enjoy, but if I got to choose something to teach others, I would really want to try this workout dance type of thing called Zumba, the music is just so moving and people seem to really enjoy doing it, plus they get to work out and be healthy in a fun way, so it's a win-win situation.
My love for books began as an escape from reality and free time, instead of doing nothing I would download books to read or get some from the library, I had a library card and everything, but I ended up not using it so often because the library opened and closed while I was at work, so I got my little sister to user hers and get me some books, I love a good book that makes you feel a ton of emotions and teaches you something new at the same time, those kind of books are my favorites.
Why I'm a good candidate to enroll in this Bootcamp:
This is not a picnic for me, I knew nothing about programming and I started learning just for this. Like I said before, my country doesn't really care about education that much, so when I heard about this I wasn't so enthusiastic about it, I thought it would be just another program that comes and goes without making a real impact, but when my sister enrolled in the first cohort and I got to hear from her about it and I got to go to some of the lectures and actually see for myself how great it is, and how the people managing it really care about it, about the students and about what they are teaching, and how it wasn't just something they want to finish and get paid for, I got excited and it gave me a reason to go on with life, because up until that moment I had nothing, so I will work hard for this.
Programming is unique in general, but even more unique in my country, so this is like a superpower, if you know something that not a lot of people know how to do, you get recognized very fast, you get a better paying job, you get to choose where to work, and when, and this is what I'm looking for, I want to do so many things and I don't want to be imprisoned by an eight to five desk job, that takes all my time and energy, and just sucks the life out of me, I wasn't made for this and I will keep fighting it till the end.
I saw on your website that people can apply to be mentors, and I just loved that, I not only love learning, but I also love teaching people and sharing what I know, so I really hope I get the chance to be one of you and mentor, I'm a bit shy so it will help me get out of my comfort zone and do something that I love, along with meeting interesting new people and sharing and gaining life experience.
My progress:
I've only decided to learn to programme two months ago, and it all started when I had an existential crisis and wanted to drop out of life itself, so I went to the first Bootcamp you had to see my sister and I met nice people there, so I thought since I'm alive anyways why not seize this great opportunity and create a better life for myself, mentally, socially and financially?
I remember I got started right away on Free Code Camp, and I had no idea to what I was doing, that I didn't get the first question right at the first try, but I studied hard night and day to get here and thankfully I was able to finish all the requirements on Free Code Camp, Code Wars and made a website -as you can obviously see- before the deadline.
I certainly hope that I get accepted, but I'm grateful for this experience whether I get in or not because I always imagined that programming is hard, but now I see that it's just a bunch of patterns and once you find the key to them you can go along way.