Building My Portfolio Site: A Real Project

After months of learning, I was ready to build something real. I decided to rebuild my portfolio site from scratch, using everything I'd learned so far.

The Decision

I chose to use Next.js for this project. It felt like the right balance of structure and flexibility. Plus, I wanted to learn React, and Next.js seemed like a great way to do that.

Planning the Project

Before writing any code, I spent time planning:

• What pages do I need?
• How should the navigation work?
• What's the content structure?

This planning phase saved me a lot of time later.

Building the Foundation

I started with the basics:

1. Setting up the Next.js project
2. Creating the layout structure
3. Building reusable components

Each step built on the previous one.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge: Responsive Navigation

Creating a mobile-friendly navigation menu was trickier than I expected. I ended up using a combination of CSS Grid and Flexbox to make it work.

Challenge: Performance

I wanted the site to be fast. This led me to learn about:

• Image optimization
• Code splitting
• Static generation

The Result

After weeks of work, I had a portfolio site I was proud of. More importantly, I had learned so much in the process.

// Example component structure
export default function Portfolio() {
  return (
    <Layout>
      <Hero />
      <Projects />
      <About />
      <Contact />
    </Layout>
  );
}

Key Takeaways

1. Planning matters: Time spent planning saves time coding
2. Start simple: Build the basics first, then add complexity
3. Learn by doing: Building real projects teaches you more than tutorials

This project was a turning point. It showed me I could build something real, something I could be proud of.