Datacamp Course Complete

 

 

i finished the final chapter of datacamp’s introduction to excel in between loads of laundry and episodes of abbott elementary. i was bored, sick with bronchitis, and going a little stir crazy because i hadn’t left my house in 4 days.

i opened my notebook and started working because i had finally exhausted my procrastination techniques: my inbox was clear and i had finished my weekly library book. i was tired of watching TV and i was wheezing too badly to do exercise.

the module, like all the others, started with a video. i diligently watched it and took notes. i paused it when i needed to but the entire process felt easier, more smooth. the concepts were clicking in a way that they hadn’t before. it had been almost a week since i had finished chapter 2. i hadn’t spent any time working with excel but my learning environment was different this time.

i wasn’t trying to learn on an evening after my brain had been pressed through the wringer of the day’s work. it was still early in the day and it was the weekend. i was awake and alert. even the music i listened to was more upbeat. i breezed through one module and then another and then another. before i knew it, i had completed the entire chapter and scored over 800 points from the combined quizzes.

uncertainty turned over in my stomach. it felt inconsistent to be finished so quickly. it felt inconsistent to be presented with a problem and then overcome it by thinking it through. i was so used to banging my head against the wall over and over like i had for the previous chapters that i felt uneasy with this accomplishment, like i hadn’t earned it.

for so long, i’ve seen myself as an outsider when it comes to analytics. the field has always been fascinating to me intellectually, but i’ve had a habit of putting it up on a pedestal, defining it as so challenging that the thought of me breezing through any aspect of it was preposterous.

i’m a writer, i thought. a liberal arts/humanities type so learning analytics won’t be easy for me. i will have to struggle my way through it.

those are the thoughts that ran through my head as i faced challenge after challenge in chapters 1 and 2. chapter 3 was the surprising variable, the outlier. i lost track of time as i completed the modules this time. i didn’t glance at the clock and disparage each minute until i could finally quit and do something else.

learning chapter 3 actually felt fun.

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