She looked at her code again.

Her mom texted back: 🌂

Zara leaned back in her chair. The sun had set hours ago. Her apartment was dark except for the glow of her monitor. She felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time: pure, uncomplicated joy.

She opened her phone. The Udemy app still had the course in her library. “Python Zero to Mastery.” 100% complete. She left a review: five stars. The review said: She looked at her code again

She felt the old doubt creeping back. Maybe the course wasn’t enough. Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe I should have done the Data Science track instead.

She ran the tests. They passed.