Congratulations on getting it going 
Some lessons to take away. Notice how you start of simply and build up the code, you don’t try and write it all at once. You do that every time not just as a beginner.
Use serial print as a debug aid and remove it when you have that bit working.
Keep things simple but not simplistic, use meaningful variable names. In a language like C long variable names are free, that is they do not add to the length of the finished code or slow things down. This is because C is compiled before running, languages like Python are interpreted so long names have a small performance hit.
What thrilled me about programming when I first started is that I could make the computer do anything I wanted provided I could find the right instructions and as there are only a limited number of instructions it was not too hard. Read about what instructions are available by reading the referance page in the help menu. You never know what gems you will unearth.