2023; The Year.
This is not an end-of-the-year review. This is a summary, an open entry into a journal.
You know how something can be wrong, you are bothered about it but can not pinpoint what it is exactly? That was me for a good part of 2023.
January went by in a haze, so there isn’t much to say. I served in Ibadan, holding down a full-time job, tried to pick up new skills, interviewed with multiple companies, and waited for the results of an exam I wrote in December 2022. I was pretty happy, mainly because I lived alone, in an apartment I loved, and in the city I wanted to live in.
February was interesting. I got accepted into the AWS Community Builders program. After that, there were lots of ‘corners taken quickly.’ I got a good contract role and was excited about it, but they couldn’t proceed due to tax laws/issues — Nigeria. I was pretty bummed about this but moved on quickly. Later that month, I lost my full-time job, and everything went downhill.
Having lost my job towards the end of February, I did not do much for the next three months (March — May). I soaked myself in disappointment, negativity and simply existed. I would eat, sleep, watch movies, do everything else but send out job applications.
There were weeks I would not open my laptop or do anything meaningful. This was particularly notable because I had spent the previous six months seriously job hunting, even with a full-time role. When I got that mail, I lost all motivation and desire to do anything career/job-related.
I was depressed and living on vibes. During this period, I lost a good friend for no reason, and it stung. I rounded up my service year and was just glad to be done with it. Special shout out to my man and my parents. They held my hands through this period.
In May, I decided to move back home because I was struggling. There were other factors, but loneliness was probably the biggest because it was engulfing. I needed to be around people I could hug randomly and talk to. Unfortunately, I did not have that in Ibadan. I struggled to build friendships, find communities, and fit in. I called my parents and asked them to come from another state to pick up my things. They did, no questions asked.
Still in May, a friend posted about a technical writing role he turned down, asking interested folks to send their CV so he could forward them to the company. I sent mine primarily out of boredom. I did not think about it until I got a call days later for an interview.
June marked a turning point for me. I aced the interviews, got an offer, and resumed at a new company with much better pay. Then I was home, meaning I experienced warmth, ate better, smiled more, and my health improved.
July. I spent a good part of July on the road, shuttling between Lagos and Ibadan while supporting my partner through a crucial period of our lives. I showed up for the Google IO Extended Ibadan event despite how crazy things were.
August. At this point, it should go without saying that some of my big aspirations for the year, like learning a new programming language, did not work out. I was efficient at work but struggled to balance things, so there was barely any time to pick up something new for myself. I often found myself having unplanned periods of intense concentration that would enable me to achieve a thing or two, but I couldn’t do much for myself outside of that.
September. I decided to pick up something new outside of tech, outside of everything I know, and it’s been worth it, albeit challenging. I received another rejection, which was the biggest bad news of the year, and I spent another few weeks crying, feeling blue, and trying to understand what could have been better.
Shout out to my mom for the random kitchen hugs, the late-night conversations, and the encouraging words.
October.
October typically mean birthday blues for me, and this year was not very different. I felt inadequate and was quite hard on myself. I could barely see or acknowledge myself. I was constantly thinking of the things I had not achieved, and how there was no time (lol). Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to leave this state.
Regarding career, nothing particularly new or exciting happened. I simply settled in at my new company, working on internal documentation, which was thrilling because it was new. I’ve always done external documentation, but working on internal documentation meant a lot of collaboration with various teams, and I enjoyed that.
November and December. I worked, prepared for an exam, missed a speaking engagement, attended DevFest Lagos, and met some incredible people. I co-organized DevFest Ibadan with an amazing team and got the results for the exam I wrote in December 2022. Yes, the results were great.
Every DevFest reminds me how much I love community-centered work and working behind the scenes. It is gratifying to see everything come together.
- I did not particularly do much career-wise, but somehow, it’s been the best year of my career. There has been clarity about what I want to do, and now I can actively work towards it.
- I did not have a job for a quarter this year, yet it has been my best financial year.
- I don’t know how but I managed to contribute to 2 published research papers in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Shout out to Steven Kolawole.
- I do not know how or when I started to take my relationship with God seriously again, but there was an awakening. My walk with God got better. He showed up and showed out for me!
- Family is everything.
- I still struggle to make friends, but I intend to be more intentional about it in the coming year. I’d appreciate an intro if there’s anyone you think I would be good friends with.
- There’s a lot on the horizon, and I look forward to celebrating some huge milestones in 2024.
- 2024, no gree for anybody!
Thank you so much for getting to the end of this! I hope you have an amazing year!
Cheers!
