I have not written a word (here) since January? I can say that I haven’t blogged since I was 49. No excuse. Not for a chatty Kathy like myself. I know that blogging my problems, processes, solutions has been helpful in the past, but I still won’t do it because I won’t stop coding. I need to remember that it’s okay—good, even—to stop coding.

Here is what happens when I do not stop coding:

• I do not run.
• I do not knit.
• I do not put my Raspberry Pi together.
• I do not go to movies or watch movies.
• I do not read for fun.
• I do not walk the dogs.

Basically, I become a boring cow. (No offense to cows with awesome personalities.) I’m full of do-nots instead of do-nuts. (Mmmm. Donuts.)

There really is no benefit to doing nothing but coding. We convince ourselves as newbies to code every day (cool, do that), but that doesn’t mean every hour of every day. It’s not good to deny ourselves our other passions. I can love JavaScript as I love reading, running, and rknitting. When I want to practice what I have learned with React, Vue, Node, etc., I’ll probably want to make something that supports another passion, but if I let those passions fizzle or think they cannot be nurtured alongside coding, I find myself doing nothing more than making another fkn to-do list.

Egads, woman. Stop. It’s not forever. Just stop coding to let yourself do some other things.

Things that happen when I do these so-called “other things”:

• I think of solutions to the problems I encountered.
• I come up with ideas for new projects.
• I feel good about myself physically.
• I have other things to talk about other than passing state down as props or mapping.
• I attend Meetups.
• I see movies.
• I ride my motorcycle.
• I start Couch-to-5k.
• I start 750 Words.
• I rest one part of my brain.
• I exercise other parts of my brain.

I become more interesting. I return to being the person who, when asked “What do you do?”, returns with “What don’t I do?”

Today? I’ve prepared for teaching Python to a youngster, but I’m also starting my Couch-to-5K plan … again. A plan I keep quitting because I wouldn’t quit coding. Today I start with day 1 and will come home after that 30 minutes to work on my MERN HomeChecker app and a smaller React project. I can give up that time. Yes, I want to be a paid developer, but I do not want to become a boring blob.