You have been given some very good advice. I just wanted to let you know you are not the only one who has these feelings. I attempted to learn Perl 3 times, given up in frustration each time before it finally started to click. I had no prior programming experience and just kept telling myself "You are not a programmer, so quit wasting your time." For some reason, I just kept giving it another shot. I'm very happy I did because I have done some amazing things with Perl and I've gained respect (and a few promotions) at my company as a result of some of the things I wrote in Perl. I still only consider myself an intermediate Perl programmer, but I can now whip up a fairly powerful script in a few hours.

Because of Perl, I decided to pursue a programming degree, and I am only one semester away from getting my BS in Computer Science. 10 years ago I would never dream I would be at this point I am today. My final programming class is an Advance Programming in Java (don't worry monks, I still love and will continue to use Perl), which is something else I never would expect I would be doing.

The best thing you can do is to keep writing code and visit back here often for help and to learn. Without a doubt I would have given up learning Perl that last time if it wasn't for Perlmonks, to which I'm forever grateful.

Take care,
Dru