What I’ve Learned So Far About the Web’s Foundation
I will never forget how my love for literature opened the doors to the world of tech. From Shakespeare to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (my second daughter’s namesake), I was always drawn to how words shape meaning. Back then, everything I read followed the same form — paragraphs, punctuation, printed language.
But today, the internet has become the new library, the global stage, the printing press of our age. It holds books, news, images, videos, and even live broadcasts — all formatted and structured not just by language, but by code.At first, I thought writing online followed the same rules as traditional writing. I was wrong. The internet has its own structure, and its name is HTML — a powerful, silent language that gives order and shape to the web.
What Is HTML, Really?
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language.It’s the skeleton of every website you see — organizing content, defining where things appear, and making sure the browser knows how to display them. HTML does not make websites look beautiful (that’s CSS), or make them respond to actions (that’s JavaScript), but without it, there would be no structure at all.
My First Few Tags
I started with just a few basic tags:
<html>, <head>, <body>, <p>, <h1>
At first, they looked strange. But once I practiced wrapping my words inside them, I began to see the pattern. <h1> gave me headlines. <p> wrapped my thoughts into neat paragraphs. <body> told the browser, “Here’s the main content.” Suddenly, I wasn’t just writing — I was building.
Mistakes I Made as a Beginner
Like any beginner, I stumbled:
To have order, there must be rules.
- I forgot to close tags (</p>, </body>) and watched my whole page collapse
- I confused class and id between HTML and CSS
- I sometimes put CSS rules directly inside HTML, not knowing how to link stylesheets
But each mistake taught me something.
What’s Next?
Now that I understand the basics, I am excited to:
- Combine HTML with CSS for layout and design
- Create simple templates I can reuse
- Practice building pages from scratch using VS Code
Final Thoughts
If you are new to coding, look here but here’s my advice:
Start small. Test often. Don’t be afraid to break things.
With every tag you write, you will understand more about how the web works — and the satisfaction that comes from seeing your ideas take shape is unlike anything else.
Feel free to share your first steps in coding, or drop any questions below. Let’s learn together — one tag at a time.
Obi'sDeck 
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