2021 in Review: The Little Things Add Up
“Don’t give up, there’s no shame in falling down! True shame is to not stand up again!” — Shintaro Midorima
Pheww, if there’s anything I learned about myself this year, it is that I don’t give up. It can be said that 2020 was a year with mixed feelings and no surface results, but this year the story changed.
Academics
School this year has been crazy as I expected, moved from 300level to final year second-semester thanks to the University of Nigeria Nsukka’s rush. My 300 level first semester grades were great (considering the effort I put in) except for the two carryovers I rewrote and failed both again. Guess I didn’t conquer? 💀 On a serious note though, it’s going to be fine. Started work on my final year project and things have been smooth, thanks to the nice supervisor I have. Now I remember, a certain fellow said, “I’ll be done with my chapters 3 and 4 by the end of the holiday” 🤡, in his defence the holiday is not yet over though.
Friends/Relationships
One of the things I wanted to achieve this year was to make memories with the people in my life, and that I did. To my flatmates and brothers at Amogbo Lane, Ben, Philip, Red, and Val, the world ain’t ready for us yet. They saw my highs and lows, my tears and laughter to mention a few.
I still met a lot of amazing folks online and offline (from meetups, events, conferences, etc.), if I start to call names this article no go finish today. Those I was able to push into tech, those that were instrumental in my progress, those I met through Ingressive For Good UNN circle, etc. Y’all have been amazing, I literally got sponsored to attend Brymo’s concert at Lagos by you guys.
I fell in love (something wey dey hard me) with an amazing friend earlier this year but things just didn’t work out. The last time I tried having a romantic relationship was in 2018 and sadly it lasted 4 days (or 3 can't remember), I tried again late this year (another person) and although it lasted 6 weeks, I’m happy about the progress. Like they say, “any progress is good progress.”
Tech
Not by intention but people who know me see me as synonymous with tech, despite my efforts to avoid the “tech bro” tag. Why? I have been doing little things here and there since 2019 and I was yet to see ₦1 from tech. Okay, that’s exaggerating, there was one time I got paid in 2020 for organizing a zoom birthday party, aside from that, yes, no money yet from tech, una don call me boss tire, nobody wan believe say I dey face sapa.
I started in 2019 with Android Development, thanks to Andela Learning Community 4.0 Landed a couple of internships but not a paying role. To be fair I wasn’t consistent all this while, I would start building this project and abandon it, I was still in the “tutorial loop”, I had lots of demands in school to mention a few.
On July 5th I made a tweet announcing my job hunt. The mentality I had before then was, “Once I’m done with school, I’ll take this tech job search seriously.” I was seeing folks from my school community doing well and it spurred me to do better.
July 22nd, while discussing with Jeffrey on Whatsapp, he mentioned that being a PM (Project Manager) would be a nice fit for me. I screenshotted that part of the chat and posted it on my status. A friend reached out to me, saying if I decide to be a PM, someone was running a sort of mentorship group for Product/Project Ops. I appreciated and took the offer and started learning what the role entails.
August came and there was school vacation, August while at home, I self-reflected and I started the job hunt properly. I even got to know that Community Manager was an actual role and I have been volunteering to do that for over four years with several tech organizations. I did a resume revamp, wrote a new cover letter, etc.
From August to November this happened;
400+ Applications sent
25+ calls/interviews joined
1 offer (sometime in November)
During that period I was collecting rejection letters like it was a daily motivation newsletter. I knew I was not the best candidate in the world but I knew my work rate was very impressive. The problem was in convincing the recruiters that I was the best person for the job and trust me it wasn’t easy. For someone who has been through this, I can tell you job hunting is not easy especially for newbies.
I got my first PM gig this year (through the friend that told me about the PM mentorship ish) and it has been an amazing hands-on experience so far. When I joined the organization that gave me an offer, I actually thought I was still dreaming. I was even applying for other roles until I received my salary for November. It’s a web3 organization so how things are run is different from traditional company structures I knew of. Then I knew this was actually happening. I have been leveraging on things I’ve learned over 4 years up till now in this current role.
Tech can change lives that I know and I held on to that and never gave up. You may be experiencing what I went through, just know someone has been there, so please don’t give up. For you this reality could be different, don’t give up on someone because they are yet to figure things out.
I attended several conferences this year, from Blockchain Africa to DevFest Enugu, Port Harcourt to mention a few. I got the opportunity last week to speak to people in the 15–17 age group (60+) and after the experience, I decided to support those that indicated an interest in tech as much as my money can take me.
Last year out of my 9 expectations for 2020, I was able to achieve just 4. Which are 4, 5, 8 and 9.
Does it mean I failed? No.
Would I have expectations for next year? Yes, why not?
Lessons learned
1. People are built differently.
2. Consistency actually does a lot.
3. You have to be intentional about your growth.
4. Grab opportunities and don’t wait for them to come to you.
5. There is no single path to success.
Gadgets Acquired:
1. Amazfit GTS (the Bip U I ordered didn’t come)
2. Anker Soundcore Motion+ (the 2020 order I made didn't come)
3. SoundPeats T2
4. Romoss 30000mAh Power Bank Sense 8+ (gave the last year’s own out)
5. 2021 Acer Predator Helios 300
6. 2 Xbox One wireless controllers (yet to arrive due to logistics issues)
Personal Top 5 Albums of the year:
1. Brymo-9: Ésan
2. AJR-Ok Orchestra
3. Blaqbones-Sex Over Love
4. Dave-We’re All Alone In This Together
5. Show Dem Camp-Clone Wars Vol 5: The Algorhythm
My expectations for next year:
1. Save more
2. Spend time and make beautiful memories with the people in my life
3. Go out more
4. Increase my income (God of x23 run am for me 🤲🏾)
5. Have more time for myself
6. Cop more gadgets
7. Read more
8. Loosen up around people
My finances greatly improved (I still dey broke though), got more people to buy gadgets from me, I got more people in tech, I was a blessing to people in my life (source? anonymous messages) met amazing folks and I can’t wait for what we accomplish next year. Oh, also I won Ingressive For Good Ambassador of the year.
Looking forward to doing more, we go hard next year🔥🚀.
