Happy New year folks!
It’s a new year and It’s time for a little reflection and review.
2021 was a year that came with a lot of uncertainties due to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic but in the midst of the uncertainties, there was no better way to put smiles on peoples faces than to help in the little ways I could.
Using the James Clear’s template, my review will be based on these 3 aspects:
- What went well this year ?
- What didn’t go so well this year?
- What did I learn ?
What went well this year?
Google WomenTechMaker Program. April 2021 I got approved into the Google WomenTechMakers Ambassador program and that meant a lot to me as one of my goals for 2021 was to take my responsibilities of been a part of the women bringing inclusion and balance into the Tech Space globally and becoming an ambassador is key in making impact globally.
WTM Berlin. I was welcomed into the WTM Berlin chapter by amazing organizers. It’s been great to be a part of this community and co-organising Tech events with these awesome people. Checkout our events here
Certification. On the list of my personal career goal was to take part in the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Program. I wrote the exam at the end of 1st quarter of 2021 and I am glad I passed it.
Speaking. I gave 3 talks which I am really proud of as this is my first experience of giving talks at conferences. Although all the talks were virtual due to Covid restrictions limiting physical gathering, but I loved every bit of it. I value all the feedbacks that was given by the audience. I hope in the future we can have opportunities to go back to physical events as I will like to connect more with a lot of other people physically.
My first talk Pivoting Your Career For Growth, was at FemTechConf, the second talk was at DevOpsWorldConf where I spoke on Key Metrics in Measuring DevOps Success and lastly at UTIVA I spoke to the intending trainees on how to get into cloud engineering.
Mentoring . In 2020 , I felt the need to give back to the society and become more active in bringing in more women into Tech , this became a goal on my list for 2021 – to become more active in giving back to the society and helping younger ladies that are interested in moving into Tech get their balance . I am glad this came to fulfilment as I became a Field Expert volunteer at SheCodeAfrica mentoring ladies in the DevOps channel of the community . I joined the existing channel coordinator and we grew to 4 coordinators on the channel with a lot of active members . Some of the highlights for me is some of our mentees getting internship opportunities through our networks, the levelled membership initiative where we give the mentees resources to study and tasks to work on and the spotlight of the month initiative where we have the mentees study different technologies per month. The greatest feeling is when we get positive feedbacks from the mentees on how our contribution is helping them in their career growth.
What didn’t go well this year ?
Fitness. With Covid happening to the whole world and having to stay at home more, I realised I added more weight . Though I started running in the mornings but I could not keep it up as I became tired of having the morning runs alone . I hope I get better at exercising in the coming year as I plan to take long walks in the evenings even if I cannot run. Also, I planned to drink more water daily in 2021, but I did not follow through on that as well. I believe 2022 will be better as I already got my 3.78 litre water bottle to help me with this.
Travels. After moving to Germany in November 2020, part of my plan for 2021 was to travel with my spouse to some fun places ( Paris , England etc ) but we could not travel to any of them (sad) , I feel really terrible about this and I hope we are able to make the travels in 2022.
Reading. At the beginning of the year, part of what I planned to achieve was to read 1 non-technical book each quarter , but I ended up not achieving this goal(sad) . I hope I can do better in 2022.
What did I learn this year ?
Appreciate the life you have. One of the lessons that 2021 taught is to appreciate each single day you have to live . A lot of people died because of Covid-19 complications and some of these people were really young folks and I could only imagine what plans they had for their future.
Prioritizing: I realised not prioritizing my different responsibilities really affected me in the way I didn’t envisage . I plan to do more of this in the coming year. Have a plan and stick to it!
That’s it!
Cheers to greater things in 2022!
Stay Healthy and I wish you all a great Year 2022!