Amateur is a word that can mean a lot of things. It can be used as an adjective (amateur painter), or as a noun (an amateur actor). It can also be used as an adverb (amateurishly). An amateur is someone who has not yet learned enough to be considered a professional. An amateur can also be someone who has learned all they need to know about their specific field and is now ready to go pro.
Everyone who is currently an expert in whatever they are doing right now all started as an amateur and we only got better at what we do with lots of practice and consistency. There are a couple of things I do today that I will consider myself very good at but like I stated earlier, I was an amateur at them when I started but today, I have gotten a lot better.
I got into graphics design during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. I got bored of always playing video games and watching movies, so one day, I decided I wasn't going to keep wasting the opportunity the lockdown provided and opt to learn a skill. I chose graphics design because I figured I could learn it in a couple of months and start earning money with it.
I got some free Udemy courses and started learning graphics design as well as photo editing. I always posted my work on my WhatsApp status because I was excited to show everyone what I was learning. I remember one of my friends after seeing one of my designs telling me that I need to put a lot of effort into becoming better because my designs at that point weren't good enough, which actually pushed me to work harder.
After a couple of months, I felt I have gotten better and decided to start getting the attention of people. One way I did that was to create a logo for my class whatsapp group using the knowledge I got from a YouTube tutorial, and it worked! I started getting job offers from my classmates who have small-scale businesses and they all wanted logos.
As I kept designing logos and other graphics, I kept getting better and the quality of my designs improved as time went on. I'm a big believer in the power of practice, it's one of the best ways to get better at anything, and I've seen it happen time and time again. I stopped designing when my laptop got damaged and I couldn't repair it.
A year after my graphics design era, I decided to go into programming because I realized I could do it with my phone. Right now, I have totally left graphics design after discovering that I love programming a lot. I'm more of a logical person and that part of me is much stronger than my visual creative side (which is needed for graphics design).
I'm still learning programming and will consider myself a baby in that world even though I have gotten a lot better than when I started. There is still a very long way to go in my programming journey and I even had to pause my learning right now because it is interfering with my university life. I plan on continuing with it after I have graduated from the university, I will definitely become a professional programmer later on.
There are still other skills that I will consider myself very good at right now and one of them is writing. I was once an amateur when it comes to writing but after doing it for a very long time, I have become very good at it and have professionally worked with it both as a writer on various online platforms and as an editor in my faculty editorial team.
What I'm driving at is that we become better at any skill as long as we are consistent and dedicated. Just remember to keep at it and don't give up on yourself when things get tough or difficult; keep going until they become easy again and so on until eventually, everything becomes second nature, that's what distinguishes amateurs from professionals.
Thanks for reading
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