2020: My Year Of Self Discovery
Here’s my attempt to telling my story.
Hello,
Here’s just me trying to share some of my feats in the year 2020, and maybe some of my plans for the next year.
Resumed Unilag
So I started the year very well in January when I resumed Unilag (after having gained admission for like 2 months). I was excited (as expected) to finally study to become an engineer, to finally learn to code and become a pro. Became a Unilag student officially on my matriculation day, I guess.
Tutored For DSC
Shortly after being admitted (even before my matriculation), I was given the opportunity to share my knowledge with the world. I taught my first session on a Friday, it was the first class for python students (I used to write python very well). I felt really proud.
Competed For HashCode
Later on, there was Google’s HashCode, my very first tech competition. It was a very great learning experience, a very nice way to put my algorithm knowledge to test (which I later discovered wasn’t good enough, then). I was with Babatunde Koiki and Sodiq Temitope. It was a really fun experience too.
Went On Strike
The Coronavirus and ASUU joined forces to give me a life-changing opportunity.
Learned TensorFlow.js and Wrote On It
With the strike on, I was without school stress and had nothing to do. So I explored my interest in machine learning on the web. I learned the basics of TensorFlow.js and found it interesting. So I wrote an article on it, and I’d say the article kinda blew as it was my most viewed and read article for a long while, it was also my first featured article ever. It motivated me to write more as the facts to me only meant that people wanted to know about these things but have nowhere to learn about them. Currently, it is my second most read and viewed article ever. It's a piece of work I’m really proud of.
As at the time of this writing, it has:
Learnt Laravel
The most important of my plans from last year was to learn a backend framework.
Made Money From Code
Shortly after learning Laravel. I was contacted to build a blog application (Yunno with CRUD functionalities) for a price. I was excited as that was the first time I made money from code (It’s still the only time though 😏). I built with Laravel as I was already looking for what to build to boost my knowledge practically, and I did learn a lot from it. It was also my first project to actually leave my laptop (other ones never go beyond localhost:8000 😢). I made over 50k from coding this year. Next year, we do more 🚀
Here’s a link to the project: https://saofoundation.org.ng
Learnt A Lot Of Things
I could say the main thing I did this year was learning, I applied for fewer jobs, didn’t have school to worry about or anything. And every day, it seemed like we were going to spend a longer period at home than we had already done, this kept me pushing, I took my time on my courses. I started learning new stuff almost every day. Learned quite a lot in the JavaScript ecosystem. From VueJS to NodeJS to ChartJS and many other VueJS plugins and add-ons. I really learned a lot and wrote on some of them.
Learned node and was able to get a stronghold of it by building projects, thanks to DSC Unilag and ECX Unilag.
Became A CrowdSource Influencer
I became a crowdsource influencer and even organized my first event where I hosted Shadrack Inusah, a CrowdSource influencer from Ghana. The session didn’t have many people but I was glad I was able to reach the few people who were there. Till today, I still contribute to CrowdSource.
Co-Authored A Book
I joined Arete earlier in the year as a volunteer and taught the basics of Microsoft packages in the July Bootcamp. I was able to share my knowledge yet again.
Then later we decided to write a book and I was able to contribute again. Another thing I’m proud of myself for.
Built Certlify
After being able to learn NodeJS courtesy of DSC Unilag and ECX Unilag during the ECX Hackaton. I decided to give back to the community by volunteering to build the DSC Certificator — A web application that runs on NodeJs which was used to certify all of the members, tutors, and volunteers of the DSC Unilag during the tenure of Akinjobi Sodiq (GeekTutor, he’s a really great guy). The application was able to fulfill its purpose very well, and we thought not to relax, as the problem the application solved was a problem not unique to just DSC Unilag. We decided to make a more complex version that can be used by the whole world for free. And we did, Certlify was born.
Building certlify was a learning experience for everyone on the team, and it's easily one of my highlights of the year. I had to learn to push any new feature. I’m really glad I was a part of it. And now, every time, when I see people use it, it motivates me to keep going, as people actually need me, and I affect their lives in my little way.
Got A Job
Another highlight of my year was the numerous interviews I was privileged to attend. Unlike the years before, my applications got responses, I attended interviews, both physical and virtual. I even declined some interviews after discovering that I wouldn’t have time to take the job or make the interview if it wasn’t virtual. And as expected, there were many rejections too. Thanks to all the amazing people on the Q Devs group (The best WhatsApp group I’m on) who would always help me prepare before interviews and still motivate me after the interviews.
In mid November, the time finally came and I officially joined CitonHub as a Junior Backend Engineer. Been waiting to get my first job since forever, and I’m really proud of myself for actually being able to. Since joining the company, I’ve been really excited about the progress the company has also brought me, the great people it has brought me to also.
Github
My GitHub is also proof of my progress as some tremendous change can be seen in my activity from 2019 to 2020, I hope to do way more in 2021.
I moved from 71 contributions in 2019,
to 891 contributions in 2020. Over 1000% increase.
Moving Forward
Well, I’d say I had a very good year where I was able to achieve my goals for the year less than midway into the year. But these goals couldn't have been achieved if they weren't set.
So here are some of my plans for the year:
- Take my article writing more seriously. I’d be moving to dev.to next year, and also write at least one article every two weeks (thanks to GeekTutor again).
- Build more projects. I plan to build at least 12 projects next year, building one per month.
- Read books. I plan to read at least 6 books next year also, about 3 to 4 Laravel books and 1 or 2 NodeJs books and 1 or 2 PHP books and 1 or 2 VueJs books.
- Teach more people. Through my article, through DSC, through CitonHub, I will reach more people and help them get into tech or help them get better or make choices.
- And finally, I’d keep on learning through videos and docs.
Summary
I built a lot of really cool projects this year, most of them pushing me to learn more, which I’m really grateful for now. I met really amazing people, some of which I got to work with, others were only able to impact their knowledge through chats and calls. I’m grateful for the people I have as friends. It was this year that I knew more about so many things.
To read more of my articles or follow my works, you may connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free!
Happy New Year.
