Let’s get something out of the way:

If you’ve been diving into network security, memorizing port numbers, fiddling with firewalls, and still feel like a clueless baby hacker lost in a digital jungle — you’re not alone.

I’ve been there. Heck, most of us are still there.
Because here’s the first uncomfortable truth about cybersecurity:

It’s not a course. It’s a lifestyle.

🎢 The “I-Should-Know-This-By-Now” Anxiety Spiral

You start with good intentions. Maybe it’s a Coursera course, a YouTube playlist, or an old dusty PDF titled "The Foundations of Network Security."

The first few lessons are fun. Ports, protocols, layers — cool.

Then one day, you try to read a Wireshark packet dump…
and it looks like someone sneezed on your screen in hexadecimal.

You panic. You question your intelligence. You wonder if you should’ve just learned Excel macros instead.

Breathe.
This moment of self-doubt?
It’s part of the syllabus no one warned you about.

🧠 Why You Still Feel Like a Novice (Even Though You’re Learning)

Cybersecurity is a huge damn field
Network security is just one branch. There’s also application security, cloud security, endpoint protection, threat intelligence, offensive, defensive, blue team, red team, purple-who-even-knows team.
You’re not “behind.” You’re just standing in a hallway of 300 locked doors holding one key.
Theory doesn’t translate without pain
You can read about how firewalls work for weeks. But until you misconfigure iptables and lock yourself out of your own VM at 3 a.m., it won’t click. Experience isn’t passive. It’s painful, confusing, and earned.
Impostor syndrome thrives in tech
The industry is filled with acronyms, egos, and gatekeeping. People love flexing about “zero-days” or “pivoting through lateral movement,” even when they haven’t changed their router password since 2014.

🛠️ Here’s What Actually Helped Me Break Through

1. Build. Break. Fix. Repeat.

Set up a vulnerable virtual lab. Tools like:

TryHackMe
Hack The Box
Metasploitable
DVWA (Damn Vulnerable Web App)

It’s not just “practice” — it’s muscle memory. Reading theory is like watching cooking shows. Hacking in a lab is actually burning the eggs and learning not to.

2. Follow a real-world path, not random YouTube playlists

Here’s a basic progression I wish someone gave me earlier:

Learn basic networking (OSI model, TCP/IP, ports)
Understand how a request travels through a network
Learn how firewalls, proxies, and NATs work
Dive into packet analysis (Wireshark)
Set up basic IDS/IPS (like Snort)
Learn how to exploit and defend (offense informs defense)

14, Samsung, iPad, etc

3. Stop comparing yourself to 10-year pros

You’re not behind. You’re just starting. It takes years to be fluent in this space. Celebrate that you know what port 443 is. The person who knows buffer overflows didn’t start there either.

4. Get comfortable not knowing

The moment you admit, “I don’t know, but I can figure it out,”
is the moment you become dangerous — in a good way.

📚 The “Keep It Real” Starter Pack (If You're Still Lost)

Tool	Why It Matters
Wireshark	Learn how data flows through a network (you’ll use this forever)
Burp Suite	Test how apps can be broken or protected
Nmap	Basic but powerful — shows what services are running and where
OWASP Top 10	Learn what attacks are most common (and how to defend)
Netcat	The hacker’s Swiss army knife
Linux	Just... learn Linux. No shortcuts.

🤯 A Note About Burnout

You don’t have to learn everything this week. Or next month. You don’t have to be hacking NASA by December.

The job of network security professionals isn’t to “know it all.”
It’s to ask better questions, Google smarter, and patch holes faster than the bad guys can exploit them.

💬 Final Words (From One Wannabe to Another)

You’re not dumb.
You’re not slow.
And you’re not “behind.”

You’re just doing something hard — and that’s the exact reason it’s valuable.

So if you’re still feeling like a novice after months of studying?
Good. That means you’re aware of how deep the rabbit hole goes. And that humility will make you 10x better than the people faking confidence with buzzwords.

Keep learning.
Break stuff on purpose.
Google aggressively.
Sleep sometimes.

And never, ever let the imposter voice win.

Cloud Computing

I’ve Been Studying Cybersecurity for Months — Why Do I Still Feel Like I Know Nothing?