Yea, you will be totally fine but don't expect to blow any speed records. I have a 2012 macbook pro (im currently replying to you on, lol), that has been upgraded with a ssd upgrade and memory, so it's basically an air....lol.
For me its perfect as a mobile development machine (coding and some gimp work) and I can still play games like KSP (on low detail if I want lots of mods).
And just for the record, macs dont get "slow" for a few reasons.
1. apples were not targeted by malware and virii like windows was/is (they are more than they used to but...).
2. ...its impossible to install anything "behind the scenes", anything you're installing is manually installed by you.
3. that high price is not just paying for the os and build...