Imagine you are writing a school essay on your computer. Each time you make big changes, you save a new file: essay_v1.docx, essay_v2.docx, and so on. Or think about how you might keep backup copies of your favorite photos, just in case you want to undo edits or recover a picture you accidentally deleted. This habit of saving different versions helps you avoid losing work and lets you compare changes over time. Version control is a system that does this for you, automatically keeping track of every change you make to your files.

# Start tracking your project with Git
git init

When you run git init inside a folder, you are telling Git to start watching that folder and everything inside it. It's like opening a fresh notebook just for your project: from this moment, every change you make can be tracked, saved, and reviewed. This is the first step to using version control on your own work.

# Check the status of your project
git status

Using git status is like flipping through your notebook to see which pages are new, which ones have changed, and which ones are ready to be saved. This command tells you what Git is currently tracking and what still needs your attention.