2022, like every other year, was full of its own ups and downs. In this article, I will be sharing my experiences, the lessons learnt and the giveaways.
Disclaimer: This is definitely going to be a long read. So get a cup of coffee or tea while you are at it.
Table of Content
Highlights of 2022
The journey so far
The wins
The losses
Lessons and Takeaways
2023 in perspective
Highlights of 2022
Here's a flashback to the beginning of this year. As with every other developer every year, one of the goals you set is to learn a new language. I set out to learn Javascript in 2022, bought a course and hopped on it. I started learning at least I started from the basics. That continued for a while but you know what they say "life happens". Well, I could say that life happened to me. Then I realised I had to get an internship placement. Obviously, I was in my internship year at my university. I started applying to tech companies but I got no response. They all needed something I did not have at the time, experience. I tried to convince them I was willing and able to learn and contribute positively but to no avail. I just felt unlucky at the time and felt imposter syndrome most of the time which held me back from taking on opportunities that came, all this feeling somehow just drove me into feeling depressed, anxious, and obsessive and I just really hated coding and I didn't know how serious the impact it was getting on me until I started diversifying into a lot of things just to see which one worked, to prove myself that once again coding was not meant for me. At some point, I just gave up on the whole job search hunting thing and decided to focus online to see what I could find.
Then this software engineering program came, actually my best nightmare lol, ALX. When I got in I couldn't believe, the first-ever acceptance email, I felt the sun smile at me. I was enthusiastic about it, maintaining grit, and connecting with other developers as well. It was intense at the time of course, what do you expect from a 70hrs/week program? Well, I continued the program, trying to keep up with the numerous tasks and resources. It wasn't easy but I persisted and no I didn't make it through so I just kind of gave up. Retracing steps to the internship I finally decided to enrol in a learning facility where I learnt graphic design and web dev. You would think that learning was going to make me feel better but I just felt worse and I always regretted why I never got selected for any job. Stubborn me kept applying and getting rejected, learning in the facility and also software engineering programming. The pressure just kept getting worse but I just always regretted everything
March came through as did OSCAFEST, I attended a conference that was nothing like I had ever seen before. I remember being star-struck when I saw people I admired in the tech space. It was an amazing experience for me, hearing a lot of wonderful talks. I remember the first day sitting close to my seat partner who eventually became one of the speakers and I found out how much we had in common. I was blown away to see what people were doing in the tech space. My motivation was 100%. I was inspired by all the talks and I was convinced that I was going to blow.
Of course, the motivation washed off a few days later when reality struck. I had still not mastered Javascript, did not get a job, and also had not gotten experience. I cycled back to learning at school, applying for jobs and reapplied for the software engineering program in hopes that I would pass the target at least but the second time turned out worse because I got in but with less grit and enthusiasm. I just pretty much waited to fail again as I lost interest, everything was suffering especially my dev life. The funny thing was I thought I was handling everything just fine until then I finally decided to resign to fate. I stopped learning, I felt numb and I kept putting pressure on myself to do more. I came across another internship opportunity to learn front-end web development but I did something, well at the time I thought I was just experimenting. I added product design because I kind of gained interest in it and I thought it was much easier than looking at codes and fixing bugs all day.
Summer came and it was soon time to build and defend my projects back at school, I met some nice friends which made me feel less miserable. The deadline was fast approaching and still no project, it was tough and I felt frustrated seeing everyone wrapping up their projects and having nothing to show. I tried building but I got stuck with trying to make everything look perfect, and I wasn't able to do much until I had some help from my friends and also collaborated with someone in building a discord clone app. I felt relieved and a bit satisfied but the imposter syndrome always found a way to creep in. Check out my Discord clone on GitHub. I was introduced to the backend which was even worse so I just left the school and gave myself a break
I decided to give software engineering one last try, at least I had found some people who were in it with me, so I didn't feel alone. I was the only girl among them, I remember solving tasks from day till night, skipping meals, coming home late and everyone was on my neck, still no job and real experience.
While this was going on I applied for a software engineering internship given the fact that I had some software engineering "experience". To my greatest shock, I was accepted, I was nervous and happy at the same time. It was a women-based program, what could ever go wrong?, so I thought. Then the interview session came, I had to solve some Data Structures and Algorithms problems which I didn't expect and did not prepare for so I flopped badly. I encouraged myself by telling myself it was a first and that I have given my best. I made a lot of connections from the program and as a result, communities were formed to which I belong to.
I continued with software engineering, I had a lot of help because I got to understand in practice what I was doing in the first place. A lot of tasks that seemed difficult suddenly became easier, I fell in love with the terminal, and I felt like a programmer. It broke my heart when I couldn't make it for the third time but this time I knew that I really learnt a lot unlike the other times, I owe it to the people who helped me at the time. I left the job search for a long time and focused on discovering myself and building relationships. The next goal was to find a mentor because never again was I going to confuse myself in the name of tech. I reached out to a lot of people I knew, hopefully, they were nice and helpful and all gave the same advice which is to "Focus on one course until successful" but I couldn't help it I wanted to explore and experiment so more. I attended a web 3/crypto-based conference, well I have always been a web 3 enthusiast so yeah I attended. It was fun I had company from my school and I met amazing people and took a lot of pictures.
At this time, I applied for the Polygon Bootcamp Africa eventually, I got in. I was happy to see another acceptance mail. I went to learn the basics of Web 3. It seemed interesting being an enthusiast, I was ready to learn. I persisted then I felt lost, nothing was looking familiar. I tried to reach people with experience in the field and found some help but I still was not understanding anything. So I chilled, I forgot to add that writing an article was one of my goals this year. for a long time, I wanted to dive into technical writing, so I tried taking some courses and doing some little research. I applied to some programs but did not get accepted then I found the Jamstack Hackathon program. I applied and I got in, another acceptance mail was added to the mailbox. I felt accepted for once in my life. Eventually, I stopped pressuring myself about getting a job and an internship and others took the cue.
It was time to deliver on another project and another deadline was fast approaching. I had not joined any team and I was building solo. I had a few days to learn the little I could about Xata and Cloudinary. I flopped again, couldn't deliver also couldn't write anything but I met a friend there who is now a mentor to me in technical writing.
Here comes November, and still no real-world experience. I had no motivation and was broken from going through a lot. I started to research for my first article, and the imposter syndrome came back again to pry, how could I become a technical writer if I was terrible at coding?, anyways I wrote and published my first ever article on the 4th of November. After that day I felt accomplished as if I had just won the lottery. I wanted to write some more so I did more research, I reached out to my mentor for some guidance. I have always loved writing but I didn't know why I was scared to write an article. Long story short, I enjoyed every bit of it.
December is here, I looked up some challenges on frontend mentor to keep myself from falling into the trap of tutorial hell. I took on some and I abandoned some. I always wanted to be consistent in something I tried joining the 100 Days of Code challenge on Twitter. I couldn't get myself to start for the fear of abandoning that as well. I didn't try that again so I went on to write more articles. I attended the Google Devfest and I connected with friends I hadn't seen since OSCAFEST. It was like a reunion for me. I learnt a lot from amazing women in tech. I also learnt about getting in-depth in a field which helps you as a techie even if you want to generalise.
I don't know if I do it consciously but I don't remember wins as easily as I remember losses. So here I am celebrating my small wins this year.
The Wins
Published my first article and several others within the space of two months
I taught a kid how to code on code.org. It was fun for me as well, who knew a kid's coding platform could be interesting and educative?
Volunteered as a content creator at an edutech company.
Got a new laptop, used a shitty laptop for a while which led me to use a shittier laptop which was a horrible experience.
I learnt Git and GitHub better
I don't regret my failures and I also see them as part of my growth process as well.
The Losses
I lost many opportunities from the fear of failure and imposter syndrome.
I lost my phone at a time I really needed it, it was a painful experience.
I lost some friends due to the lack of communication and I really shut and cut people out. I think it's for the best.
Lessons and Takeaways
Do your own research always.
Don't be afraid to explore.
Ask questions no matter how silly they may sound.
Reach out for help if you need help. You will always find people willing to help.
Put yourself out there.
Be consistent.
Never give up, and don't let your failures define you.
Never stop learning.
Moving Forward: 2023
2023 is fast approaching and here are some of the things I'd like to work on to get myself on the right track.
Get better as a front-end developer and a technical writer by taking on challenges and learning in public
Write more content probably newsletters
Put me out there more
Apply to more internships/jobs and get gigs
Start my own tech podcast
Create a course or write a book for kids in tech
Mostly, become a better version of myself.
Conclusion
I really want to give a shoutout to myself for not giving up on myself, for persisting, pushing and learning even when I wasn't feeling like it. I want to appreciate my mentors, and friends who have helped in this journey so far, I love you guys so much. Can't wait to see what 2023 has in store! Thanks for stopping by👍👋
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