justinleemans.nl

Welcome to justinleemans.nl, my personal portfolio website. This website itself is also one of my many projects and has been an interesting journey for me.

It all started during my studies when we were required to create a portfolio website. At the time, I was focused entirely on game development and had little to no experience with web development. The first version of my site was a self-hosted WordPress setup. It wasn’t the most visually appealing, but it served its purpose. Back then, I wasn’t too concerned with having a polished, custom-built website because my work revolved around game development rather than web technologies.

As I transitioned into web development, my perspective shifted. Having a WordPress-based portfolio didn’t feel quite right anymore, especially since I was now working on web projects professionally. I knew I wanted to build something of my own, but for the longest time, I kept putting it off. Between work, other side projects, and just life in general, it always seemed like something I’d do “someday.”

Eventually, I decided to go for it. I saw it as an opportunity not just to create a more personalized and professional website but also to learn something new along the way. I spent time researching different technologies and ultimately settled on Nuxt.js (built on Vue.js) along with Bootstrap for styling, and I decided to host the site using Vercel. Most of these technologies were unfamiliar to me, which was a bit daunting, but I liked the idea of challenging myself and expanding my skill set. Nuxt.js, in particular, seemed like a great fit because of how well it handles statically generated websites, making it an ideal choice for a simple portfolio like mine that doesn’t require a backend or database.

The development process had its ups and downs. Some things came together smoothly, while others took more effort to figure out. There were times when I had to stop, rethink an approach, and try again, but that’s all part of learning. One feature I’m especially happy with is how content is managed, everything is built using Markdown files, making it easy to create and organize posts without dealing with a complicated CMS or database.

Looking back, I’m really glad I finally took the time to build this. It’s far from perfect, and I’m sure I’ll keep tweaking and improving it over time, but that’s the nature of personal projects, they grow with you. This website isn’t just a portfolio; it’s a reflection of my progress as a developer, and I’m excited to see how it evolves in the future.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy browsing my portfolio as much as I enjoyed building it.