The Day I Deployed My First Project (And Totally Freaked Out)

By Manaja —

It started like any normal day.
Just me, my terminal, my backend project built with love (and coffee) using Node.js and Express.

The code was working perfectly locally.
I had routes. I had controllers. I had a database connection.
Everything was smooth.

Then I told myself:

"Time to deploy this masterpiece to the world."

🧠 My Plan: Simple, Right?

I chose Vercel. Easy, fast, free.

  • I pushed my code to GitHub.
  • Connected the repo to Vercel.
  • Set up the project.
  • Hit "Deploy".

Boom. It was live.
I opened the link...
And everything crashed 🔥

😱 What Went Wrong?

Let’s just say... a lot.

  • I forgot to set my environment variables on Vercel.
  • My MongoDB connection string was pointing to localhost.
  • I didn’t handle async errors well — the server died silently.
  • I had no logs, no monitoring, no plan B.

For a second, I questioned my entire dev journey 🥲

But instead of giving up, I took a deep breath (and another coffee) and got to work.

🛠 What I Fixed

  • I created a .env.production file and set up variables on Vercel’s dashboard.
  • Switched my database URI to MongoDB Atlas.
  • Wrapped all my routes with proper error handlers.
  • Added basic logging with console.log (baby steps).

After a few hours of fighting with the unknown…
It finally worked. My API was live, reachable, and stable.

🧪 What I Learned

  • Deployment is a whole other skill.
  • Always prepare for things to break.
  • Logs are life.
  • Don’t trust your local setup too much.
  • Success feels 100x better after a real struggle.

💬 Final Thoughts

Deploying your first project is a rollercoaster.
But it’s the moment you go from “learning to code” to “building real stuff.”

And trust me — the moment your app goes live,
even if it's just a “Hello World API”,
you feel like Iron Man launching Jarvis. 💻⚡

"One deploy at a time, I’m building my future. One bug at a time, I’m earning my scars."