I know next to nothing about Development. So when I see people and projects around me, I begin to suffocate. I get so insecure and nervous, because the people I work with seem to know so much more than I do and I hadn’t felt that before. In high school, people were so disinterested in learning and I felt smarter, because I was there to learn, not because the government forced me to be there, and that gave me an edge.

Now, I am spending approximately 8 hours a day with people who are engaged in their work and are making an effort to learn or teach in addition to their work. They are doing things that I want to do in my life, and watching them, I get scared, so scared. Scared that when it comes time for me to do what they are doing, I will fail. Every morning, I consider that fear, but I wake up and go to the office everyday. I go because I know they all will be there to help me make it, they all have the faith that I will do it. They don’t make fun of any question I have, they are genuinely interested in what I am doing, and they try to involve me in what they are doing. They do it, because they see a little bit of themselves, as I see myself in them. They know how that fear feels, as any journeyman or master does, and they want to do what was done for them.

This may have been how an apprentice in Medieval times felt. Watching the masters and journeymen around me, I am beginning to believe that I can do it. I just need to work and learn. It will take time, so much time. It won’t happen in a week, or even a summer, but I will get there. I will become a journeyman, and then a master. It simply takes work, passion, and time. I need to have the passion in the craft that I pursue, and the passion to learn. It will take work to overcome fears about my journey, just like I need to work to find the next opportunity. I could wait and go to college and work for a corporation, hoping that I will have learned enough to make myself successful. I could also start now, and start to learn from the journeymen and the masters, learn with other apprentices. I could become a journeyman, knowing that I will have learned enough to be successful, and after more work and learning, become a master, allowing me to help other people to learn what I had. It simply takes work, passion and time. There is no barrier to entry besides yourself. There are people who want to teach a willing learner, you just have to find them.

Getting back to the original question, I think an apprentice is someone who puts themselves out there, in order to find people to learn from. The may be afraid, but doing it, despite that fear, is a sign that they are that much more driven. There are times that they are lost, but they always find their way. There are more people to be around and learn from, and a true apprentice will find them.