Do you remember when you fell in love with programming? It probably wasn't while you were learning code at school or online, or working on a client project.

You can probably relate. That moment when you were writing code because you wanted to, no, because you desired to. No deadlines, no pressure. Only that feeling of power, being able to create something from nothing with code. It could be something as simple as an HTML web page, a program on your calculator to — hmm — cheat on your maths exam, or hacking something together for a game you're playing.

For me, at least, those are some of the examples that resonate.

I'm writing this as a reminder to myself and whoever needs to hear it: don't forget that time when your programming passion sparked. You're older now, you've got other things to do, you have responsibilities now. You might never experience the same amount of joy compared to that first year of programming, behind the computer in the living room while your siblings were playing, making lots of noise and distracting you.

But you can still find passion projects. Keep an open mind. Write a game, a website, a book, whatever. Not because you must, not to impress your social media following, not to make a living out of it — but because you can, because it gives you joy.