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I’m not a software developer—not even close. But this weekend, I found myself in the middle of a 48-hour hackathon, building a mobile app from scratch. With no prior experience in pose estimation or React Native, I dove headfirst into a problem that turned out to be one of the most difficult challenges at the event. From debugging TensorFlow to designing UI features and learning on the fly, this was a crash course in showing up, asking questions, and refusing to quit—even when everything broke. This post is about how I survived it, what I learned, and why I’m proud I didn’t walk away.

The third iteration of my site was built using React and Next.js, and this time I approached it differently. Instead of diving headfirst into unknown waters, I spent time doing research, understanding the security implications of my choices, and mapping out a cleaner architecture. Next.js isn't a programming language itself, it's a framework built on top of JavaScript and TypeScript that's perfect for static and hybrid web applications using React. More importantly, it was the ideal foundation for the secure, modern CMS I had chosen. Did it still give me headaches? Absolutely. Did I still find myself debugging at 2 AM? You bet. But this time felt different because I had a clearer vision and better tools. The learning curve was steep, but each obstacle felt surmountable rather than insurmountable.

Things didn't work the way I was imagining, expecting, or even predicting. Plugins didn't execute, updates were blocked due to faulty code, and tiny little mistakes in the middle of an ocean of script caused me to scream in frustration at times. Very difficult to hold in a yell after hours of trying to figure out why something didn't work, and what to use instead as a backup method, when it's 2 am and you've taken loss after loss on the day when this newest idea was supposed to be a 20 minute implementation. But here's what I learned: creation isn't about flawless execution; it's about the willingness to try, the ability to be adaptable in any situation, and the resolution to see the whole thing through without quitting.

My first post on my own personal cybersecurity blog!