When I submitted the keys to the apartment that had been my home for five years and stepped on the flight to head back to New Orleans two Wednesdays ago, I had one feeling–apprehension. Coupled with thoughts that I “had better” make it, and that I “had to” learn everything or it’d all be for nothing, I said a quick prayer on the plane and settled in my seat with the music on my iPhone booming in my ears.

What fueled this fear? Well, it’s simple.

I was born and raised in New Orleans. When I moved from the city to start college in 2007, I vowed I wouldn’t come back–at least not to live–but fast forward nine years and one Google search later, and I couldn’t get Tech Talent South off my mind.

As I read the information about the program, admittedly obsessively, I knew this was the best option for me. Sure, there are about 1,000 different coding boot camps in Washington, D.C.–I even tried a part-time front-end program from which I later withdrew–but something about the TTS site, and it being the only full-time immersive program in my hometown, drew me in.

Preparation for the course reminded me of my time in college studying for several computer science classes. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But on day one, the instructor, Ross, reassured me and the rest of the class that this was something we could learn. One week in, we’ve braved the foundations of front end, tackling HTML and CSS with tidbits of JQuery and Bootstrap. I’m not so afraid anymore.

The leap of faith certainly hasn’t been easy–there’s not one person who’ll willingly walk away from consistent income and a place they’ve learned to call home if they haven’t fallen in love. That’s the journey I’m on–a journey to fall, and stay, in love with web development, so I can further strengthen my community (there will be more on this in my next blog post).

Stay tuned. The Spring 2016 class of TTS NOLA will be a memorable one.