So, you’re going to be in an intensive learning environment for nearly twelve hours a day in five-day spans for fourteen weeks. One question to consider is, what are you going to put in your body? The students at Tech Elevator Pittsburgh have several different answers to this.
Many students at Tech Elevator are aggressively health-conscious. Around the tables at lunch time, salads are popular, along with quinoa, chickpeas, hummus, and one confirmed sighting of bee pollen, sprinkled into Greek yogurt. If you’ve read a few of my blogs, you might predict that I fall into this category. You wouldn’t be wrong. I bring a salad of assorted vegetables, baked chicken and avocado for lunch. I also bring two pieces of fruit, usually an apple and a pear. I also make sure I don’t leave the house without a package of almond bars purchased from Trader Joes. I love these things. I eat them for our fifteen minute break and whenever else I’m hungry. Or whenever I need an excuse to walk away from the computer.
Tech Elevator is on Pittsburgh’s North Side. There aren’t many restaurants, fast food or otherwise, within walking distance. Some people who I think would probably eat out most days don’t have that option. So there is usually an array of tasty leftovers from previous night’s dinners–chicken and rice, cuts of pork, potatoes, and vegetables, cold pasta.
Many opt for the sandwich and chip route. There are a lot of nice-looking salami or ham subs with lettuce, tomato and mayo. I’m always jealous of these people. Salami and american cheese is basically my favorite thing in the world. But I would need a siesta if I ate of one those at noon.
And, few and far between, are the junk food eaters. Now and then a bag of doughnuts will find its way around the classroom. It’s next to impossible to say no to a doughnut when you’re drinking coffee, so I dip my hand in the bag. Sometimes you need to let yourself slide. Sometimes people eat a sleeve of Oreos with a side of nachos for lunch. Whatever. We’re all human here.
There are a few smokers at TE and a few vapers, but caffeine is the drug of choice. There is an impressive assortment of teas in the kitchen and many students partake either as their sole conduit for caffeine or as their fallback after they begin uncomfortably tweaking. But, in my opinion, man cannot live on tea alone. Coffee is king.
The kitchen is always stocked with a massive container of ground beans from Commonplace Coffee. Brandon, a .Net student and former drinker of Maxwell, can’t take a sip without commenting how good it is. He’s right.
Brandon drives all the way from Youngstown to Pittsburgh each morning. He’s one of the hardest workers in class, reportedly clocking twelve to sixteen hours of coding on the weekends. He drinks one cup in the car and then several of the good stuff after arriving. By mid-morning he’s talking like an auctioneer.
Another .Netter, Wade, had been quitting coffee when the cohort started. Wade is a former collegiate baseball player with a deep voice. He’s a quick learner with some coding experience and sometimes likes to stand towards the back of the room while Tom teaches, folding his arms across his chest like a third-base coach. He had been working from home for over a year before starting at the boot camp and his coffee consumption had spiraled out of control.
He reported to us back on the first day that he had cut back, down to a half a cup in the morning. But as the days piled up, he could be seen walking to the brewer, staring at the black pot and shaking his head as he wrestled against the bitter fragrances. I think Wade’s up to two or three cups a day now.
No matter what we put into our bodies, focus is difficult. As the days wear on in the week, it becomes hard to keep the energy levels up. But we’ll keep experimenting, keep trying to make our minds fertile land for the storm of information raining on us.
From Retail to Programming 