Blog: My React Journey

It’s been a little while since my last blog post - and with good reason. Over the past few months, I made a conscious decision to get my head down and really focus on the React module of my Codecademy Full-Stack Developer path.

My goal is to stay on track and finish the entire front-end curriculum before Christmas, which meant fewer updates… but a lot of learning.

Now that I’ve finished the React section (and already started Redux — which will be my next post), this felt like the perfect time to reflect on what has genuinely been one of the most exciting phases of my journey so far.

Falling in Love with React

Learning React has been a huge milestone. After months of building strong foundations in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and general front-end principles, getting to React felt like stepping into the world I’d been waiting for.

And honestly? I absolutely loved it.

React made everything click — components, props, state, effects, controlled inputs, and the idea of UI that updates instantly as your data changes. It felt modern, logical, and (to my own surprise) genuinely fun.

Building Jammming: The Project That Tested Me

The Jammming project — a Spotify-powered playlist builder — brought all of the module’s concepts together in a real, complex app.

The Highs

Seeing search results flow perfectly through the component tree
Watching tracks add and remove from the custom playlist
Understanding state well enough to debug issues on my own
Working with a real API and real user flows
Refactoring old code and instantly seeing how much I’d improved

The Lows

Wrestling with outdated Spotify authentication instructions
Silent API failures and token issues
Blank screens caused by missing props
Chasing tiny bugs scattered across multiple components
Trying (and retrying) to get playlists saving correctly

But honestly, every challenge made me better. Nothing teaches React quite like juggling async requests and state spread across different components.

Saving my first playlist into Spotify felt like a genuine milestone — the moment I stopped “learning React” and started using it.

Another Milestone: The Appointment Planner

After Jammming, I moved straight into the Appointment Planner project — smaller in scale but incredibly valuable for my understanding of React fundamentals.

This project sharpened core skills including:

Controlled form inputs
Passing callbacks through multiple components
Lifting state up to keep logic clean
Using props effectively and consistently
Rendering UI entirely from state, not static content

Building features like custom contact selection, date/time inputs, and instant appointment rendering showed me how naturally React is beginning to feel.

There were bugs — missing functions, incorrect props, misplaced data — but each one taught me something new. More importantly, it was the first project where React felt intuitive. I wasn’t fighting the framework. I was working with it.

A New Way of Thinking

React has changed how I build interfaces. I now break ideas down into components automatically. I think in terms of state, data flow, reusability, and side effects. And I’ve realised how powerful it is to build UIs that update instantly based on the data they represent. It's even got me contemplating whether I should rewrite this website with React instead of hardcoded HTML & CSS.

It’s been a real mindset shift — one that feels like a milestone in my development journey.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas…

React has opened the gates to a flood of project ideas. I’ve already sketched out concepts for:

A reading tracker
A habit-building app
A personal task manager
An away-day selector
Rebuilding older projects the “React way”

I’m holding off (for now) because I want to finish the full front-end curriculum — but knowing I have a list ready to go is incredibly motivating.

What’s Next: Redux

As soon as I wrapped up React, I moved straight into Redux. I’m already working through slices, reducers, dispatch actions, and global state — and it’s clear how transformative Redux will be for building more complex apps.

My next blog post will dive into my first impressions of Redux and how it ties together everything I’ve learned so far.

My React Journey: Highs, Lows, and What’s Next