Preface

The journey of life always begins with the first step.

This is a summary of my past ten years and a glimpse into my future ten years. Initially, I thought of letting AI write something perfunctory, but later decided to reflect on my own experiences.

2011

To be honest, my initial exposure to programming was around 2011. Back then, I knew next to nothing about it, and I saw others who seemed quite impressive, but I didn’t pay much attention.

2013

As I progressed to the third year of school, a classmate recommended that I play Minecraft. This can be considered the beginning of my coding journey, as I met many experts in the field through this game.

Why I Chose Front-end Development

Now, let me talk about my journey with programming languages.

It’s a bit more complicated, to be honest. When I first started, I was introduced to a programming language called “Easy Language.” At the time, my English wasn’t very good, but as soon as I saw a programming language in Chinese, I became immediately interested. I still believe that the graphical user interface of Easy Language has a timeless quality and gives a sense of being ahead of its time.

Afterward, I started writing various things, including modules in Easy Language and delved into EXUI research. At that time, I felt a sense of accomplishment. It was also during this period that I became aware of interface design (although I didn’t know it as UI design at the time), and I started to learn Photoshop. This laid the foundation for me to become an aspiring front-end developer.

Later on, most of my focus shifted to learning Java for writing Minecraft plugins and mods. I had zero prior knowledge, only a bit of C++, and I aimed to become proficient quickly. So, I decided to dive into writing Java plugins right away.

Molex

Back then, the group of individuals led by Molex within my circle had the most significant influence on me. They criticized me a lot, which contributed to my growth. I won’t go into too much detail, but over time, our interactions have reduced, and my participation in the group has become less active. Nonetheless, I believe I’m content with how things have turned out.

After enduring numerous criticisms, I decided to delve into Java’s Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). With determination, I spent an afternoon from 1 PM to 4 PM learning it. That very evening, I began working on plugins. Surprisingly, the results were quite impressive. This marked the official beginning of my journey into the world of programming.

2018

The year 2018 was a year full of ups and downs. From that year onwards, I experienced three major turning points.

Money

The first turning point was probably about money.

I started taking on freelance projects from the sixth grade.

Back in the fifth grade, I used my mother’s real name. I started live streaming on Douyu, and to my surprise, someone entered (who I later found out was a group member from the Bukkit development group). We had a good conversation, and we exchanged WeChat contacts. As soon as this person saw me live streaming, they sent me 100 yuan and mentioned that I would get a share of the gifts sent by viewers. This could be considered my first significant income. At that time, 100 yuan was a substantial amount for me, and I had never encountered such a significant sum of money before.

NetEase

Starting from the second semester of my eighth-grade year, my clientele began to grow. I also met a visionary figure during this period, and we began collaborating. At the time, I was quite naive and always afraid that if they knew my real age, they would think my technical skills were subpar. I used to boast about being a college freshman. Now, I’ve become much more open about it, and I can even laugh about it.

This period coincided with the outbreak of the pandemic, and there are many development stories in between. I’ll save those for another time.

I didn’t consider myself a highly skilled developer at that point, but I learned and developed my skills on the go. Surprisingly, I could easily meet the requirements on their end. It was a peculiar feeling, possibly because I genuinely enjoyed working on such projects. From that moment, I felt I might be more suited for a career in computers, and I became utterly fascinated.

This was the second major turning point in my life. At that time, I managed to gain admission to one of the better middle schools in the entire province. My teachers had high hopes that I could make it to Fudan University (it’s interesting that I now have a friend who attends Fudan University). At the very least, they expected me to enroll in Sichuan University. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it.

High School

My high school journey had its share of twists and turns.

By the time I reached the ninth grade, I had stopped studying because I believed that computers were more important than anything else. Looking back, I realize how naive I was. Thankfully, my educational foundation was strong. Thanks to the efforts of my homeroom teacher, I managed to secure a spot in a prestigious provincial school. However, my peers continued on to our local school.

Once I entered high school, I made a resolute decision to study diligently. For the first month, I did manage to study diligently (because I had spent the summer break fervently studying programming, which caused me to be placed in the last class during the entrance exam). Prior to the class assignments, I worked hard and occasionally slacked off. Later, I also got into my second relationship, which, in hindsight, feels a bit awkward.

My teachers and homeroom teacher were convinced that I was the weakest student and that I would attend a local university at best. However, things didn’t go as planned. During the middle of the year, I joined the algorithm group, but I didn’t make much progress because it wasn’t aligned with my interests, and my homeroom teacher was actively intervening. I ended up with no significant achievements in that area.

After the class assignments, I was placed in the lowest-performing class, partly due to my own actions. Up until then, I had always been among the top three students in my class, and I could easily outperform others even without putting in much effort. Besides the top student, I couldn’t surpass them. It might have been this sense of complacency that led to my downfall. All of a sudden, I began to decline academically. I was quite lost at the time, and this is what led to my third major turning point.

In the second semester of my tenth grade year, my grades plummeted dramatically. By the end of the term, I was struggling to make up for it, but it was too late, and the pandemic further complicated the situation. Starting from my eleventh grade, I noticed that my classmates had plans for their futures, and I was always confident that computers would be my ticket to success. I was overly optimistic. I won’t get into the details of my experiences during that time, but it eventually got to the point where I began taking off-campus classes in the latter half of 2023.

Speaking of my experiences from elementary school through high school, I was always attending supplemental classes and various extracurricular activities. I had already been worn out by the constant studying. Additionally, high school had various half-day or full-day breaks, sometimes even lasting for half a month. During vacations, I would receive one-on-one tutoring, which made it difficult for me to study. Eventually, I decided not to let it disrupt my free time. I made use of the evening self-study sessions when the teachers were not present, and I would skip them to study on my own. Later, I began attending off-campus classes.

Attending off-campus classes was expensive, costing me 50,000 yuan for three months. This, along with living expenses, put additional financial pressure on my family. Especially during a period when my parents went to great lengths to support me, and I’m truly grateful for that. Unfortunately, my final high school exam results only improved by less than 50 points. It’s true that I didn’t give it my all.

Before me, even though I was one of the weakest in mathematics, I managed to perform poorly in the college entrance exam, and I also didn’t reach my goals in English. This marked the third major turning point in my life. I began to feel that I wasn’t suited for traditional education, exams, or that kind of life. My entire high school experience was marked by tutoring sessions, and it was a painful journey. My high school years felt like a failure.

Throughout high school, I continued to work on my personal front-end projects, and I simply couldn’t focus on anything else. Fortunately, in 2023, I made a modest contribution to a star project for one of my idols, which felt like a milestone. It was around this time that people started recognizing my work, and I received numerous accolades.

2022-2023

Now, let’s talk about another person who has had the most significant impact on me.

Lao Lv! (By the way, there’s also a very enthusiastic Lao Lv in the Bukkit group.)

In 2022, I joined Xiaoshan’s fan group, with plans to create a comprehensive wiki project. In reality, my goal was to create a blog, with a pure aim to compete with Suya and Feishu. It was during this time that Dream Peddler from Wuyu Cloud Computing also supported me, having supported many of my projects previously. I kept procrastinating and being indecisive, which is a bit embarrassing in retrospect.

Speaking of which, I can share a bit about the PVPIN Studio story.

Returning to the topic, several people added me during that time, and we formed a group. During the summer, after they finished their work, we would work on projects together in the evenings. They praised me a lot and asked me to teach them. I had written quite a bit, so I shared some of my experiences. In the end, I became closest to Lao Lv, and I believe that there’s an interesting story to be told about my friendship with Lao Lv.

All the people I worked on projects with during that time are doing quite well now. Some have gotten married, and most have found their significant others. When it comes to Lao Lv’s happiness in life, I genuinely have concerns, haha!

If it weren’t for Lao Lv, I might not have been able to go to college during my senior year. Lao Lv has done so much for me; it’s hard to put it all into words. In any case, her moral support meant a lot to me.

I have so much more to say, and my thoughts are quite disorganized. This is the first time I’ve written such a long piece, and it comes with a bit of mental pressure and burden. I’ll take the time to discuss these things further in the future, as this is something I’m writing for my future self. It’s hard to say how my life will turn out, but I feel like I’m just an ordinary person.

Regardless of the process, in the end, my results are just the outcome of a bit of effort. It’s challenging to say whether I’ve lived up to my parents’ expectations, but I have no regrets.

The process of exploring technology, at least for me, is worthwhile. In the future, I will spend my entire life exploring and following in the footsteps of those who came before me.

The Next Ten Years

As for my plans for the next ten years, it’s hard to say if I have any concrete ones.

The main goal is to travel to various places, as I’ve missed out on traveling a lot. I want to meet people I haven’t met before, meet online friends, and make sure I don’t miss any opportunities.

I hope to participate in various conferences as well. Fingers crossed!

Other goals include achieving some milestone achievements, such as attending the Google I/O conference and the WWDC. I’d like to win some awards, which would be a way to compensate for my life up until now. Besides a few elementary school awards, I haven’t achieved anything significant.

In the end, I hope to graduate and find a job at a major company. I hope a major company will recognize my potential.

My life goals seem quite simple. I really love programming, but technology evolves so rapidly that I find it challenging to keep up completely. My friends advise me to work for a foreign company or study abroad, and I would love to do that, but I’m not sure if I can.

I’ve said quite a lot, and I’m not even sure what I’m talking about anymore. So, I’ll wrap it up here and hope that I can stay true to my original aspirations and not forget my dreams.

Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to my parents for their unwavering support, dedication, and understanding. I’m also thankful to my friends for their ongoing support, understanding, and companionship.

In closing: “On the horizon, there’s still a deep track, waiting for your return.”

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