I cannot find the thread any more, but there are others with the same thoughts and problems. And the one advice I give them all is: Practice. Every day. Learn new things, new principles, new ways to use the language. One way to do so in a meaningful way while keeping up motivation is to work on a project. I, myself, started out with projects and worked my way up from there.
If you ever wonder, what stuff you might have to learn for the back-end, you are welcome to take a look at my article about Web Development 101, which, instead of listing concrete frameworks, tells you which principles and technologies you need in order to grasp them all and get even more out of it. For backend, all chapters are useful except the "client" chapter :)