I’ll never forget the night Laravel nearly humbled me. A client needed their Laravel site migrated to a new host, and without thinking twice, I said yes. The funny part? I had never touched Laravel before. Not even once. It wasn’t a matter of stretching my skills — it was more like jumping into a pool I didn’t know existed. But I’ve always been that person. The one who figures things out. The one who says yes, then stays up all night making sure that yes was worth it.
The moment I opened the project files, I knew I was in for it. There was no WordPress dashboard, no plugins, no visual cues. Just folders and files that looked like they were written in code meant for machines and magicians. I started Googling. I read article after article, watched video after video, opened Laravel docs in five tabs, and tried to piece together what was going on. I learned what a public folder was. I discovered .env files. I started connecting dots I never thought I’d need to.
Of course, things broke. A lot. White screens. Path errors. One minute the site half-loaded, the next it vanished into thin air. I kept going. Every error was a new thing to Google. Every fix was a tiny win. I learned how to adjust document roots, tweak .htaccess rules, and get the server to point to the right folder. It was 2 a.m., then 4 a.m., and I was still at it. Eyes blurry, brain buzzing, but getting closer.
And then, finally, it worked. The site came up. Clean. Smooth. Perfect. I sat there staring at it, a little stunned, a little proud. I had done it. Laravel didn’t win. Not that night.
Looking back, that moment changed something in me. It wasn’t just about fixing the site. It was about trusting that I could enter unfamiliar territory and still find my way. I didn’t have the answers at first, but I knew how to ask the right questions, dig deep, and stay patient until it made sense. That mindset? It’s what keeps me growing. It’s how I turned “I’ve never done this before” into “I can do this again.”