Just wanted to share a small win today! 🎉

I always used Firebase or Auth0 for my apps because security terrified me. This week, I challenged myself to build a JWT authentication system from scratch using Node.js, Express, and MongoDB.

I learned so much about HTTP-only cookies, hashing passwords with bcrypt, and handling refresh tokens. It took way longer than expected, but the feeling of finally understanding how auth actually works under the hood is incredible!