“I don't know what's in store for me yet. However, based on this one, 2022 is definitely gonna be lit 🔥.”

That was what I wrote about this year in my last year’s review article.

Looking back at everything that happened, I’d just say wow.

This year has been one of the best so far. A lot has happened.

School

Silicon Valley - Software Engineering Project Team, 2022

Since my first CWA in my first-year first semester, I had always been decreasing after every semester.

This year, I made up my mind to stop that trend and increase my CWA once for a change.

I had to give up certain activities and go according to a very strict timetable. That timetable “cast” after a week or so though 🤣.

Funny enough, even with a very tight schedule, this first semester was one in which I had the most fun: Meet-ups with friends, game nights, movies, chats and other fun activities.

Anyways, yes, I accomplished the task. I was able to increase a bit in the first semester. By about 2.0. I’m excited about it because my CWA had reached a point where I was praying that it doesn’t go any lower than that.

I’m grateful for the effort I put in.

For the second semester too, a lot happened. Like wow.

Okay, let me rephrase that: I was absent the whole semester because I had to go for an internship abroad (I’ll talk about that soon.)

When I came back from the internship, I had a little over 1 week before the start of the end-of-semester examination. I was hot, for real.

The plan was to study while I was on the internship but I got so busy and unproductive there. hehe.

I resorted to a series of all-night and continuous studies. Damn, the school can be scary at times.

You won’t believe what happened.

The results were surprisingly great 🥹.

I wasn’t shocked when the results were released but I was sort of proud of myself. To be able to maintain my CWA and get the grades that I got by putting in that effort in such a short period? Wow.

Software Engineering as a course deserves a shoutout here. Man, that course was fun. Not only did I learn new technologies and how to better work with teams through the project that we had to do, but I also had a lotta fun with the games, the all-night coding sessions with the team, the treasure hunt that we won and a whole lot. SWE was solid! Thanks, Jeph, for making it so!

School ✅

YouTube (trevenue44)

I started the year well with really good video uploads. I was a bit consistent. But then I stopped on the way.

I think I got occupied and had less motivation to work on videos.

I was working on a python tutorial series for people who are beginners and want to learn python programming. Stopping in the middle has left the whole project useless. I mean, who wants to watch an uncompleted course? 🤣

Then I started ourTalk. That was lit.

Unfortunately, during my internship period, I was mostly occupied with work and hence had less time to create quality content. So I sort of went on a break. I was still releasing videos once in a while but not as consistently as I would like.

After the internship and after the second-semester exams, I was able to find my ground again. Went on a very good streak of videos: Python Tutorials and ourTalk videos.

It was solid.

About the youtube channel, I’d say there’s been ups and downs but I’d give it an above-average performance from my side. haha.

Summer Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs Summer Analyst Welcoming Card, 2022

I started the application process for this programme last year in November.

I wasn’t putting a lot of faith into it until I got an email in December telling me to prepare for a Hackerrank test in January. This was when I knew that I had a shot.

I took my Hackerrank interview preparation kit. With all the laziness and strength, I prepared as best I could for the test.

After the test, another email for an interview.

It was all just falling into place smoothly. Wow. From thinking I don’t have a shot to getting a call from Sally. She said “Congratulations….” and I’m like 🥹.

All of a sudden, I was on a plane headed towards Heathrow, London.

In terms of my development, the internship has made it possible for me to learn new technologies, and new programming languages and how to use them with new stacks.

The environment was awesome. My team was patient with me and helped me through learning the new things I needed to know to get started. Such a wonderful community of people.

It was my first internship, my first job for that matter. I got to learn how to work in a corporate environment for the first time. I learnt how to collaborate with other people on large projects and so on…

Big shoutout to my manager, my team and everyone in my life who helped make this a possibility.

Overall, solid experience at the internship. Those two months would go down as part of the best days of my life.

I had to put my academic year and my CWA on the line to go for this internship but it was worth it.

Turns out I did a great job and they were impressed with the work that I did with them. I’ve been extended a return offer to come back and work with them full-time after school 🍾.

I’ve also stepped up and accepted another offer to be a Goldman Sachs Campus Ambassador.

I’m grateful and proud of myself right now.

Software Engineering, Developer Stuff, Tech in General…

I’ve been able to enable myself to grow in my software engineering capabilities.

I look back at the kinda code that I used to write. It reflects just how much I’ve grown. Through the internship, the software engineering school project, personal projects, interactions with people and all the other little things that I don’t necessarily notice.

This year,

I learnt JavaScript and Typescript.

I learnt React for frontend development. I usually love to use React with Typescript instead of pure JavaScript. There’s just something about the typed language that intrigues me and I think it makes life easier.

I learnt about Jest and how to use it to write unit tests for frontend components. I learnt and got to appreciate the importance of unit testing and CI/CD pipelines. Solid.

Good experience and growth in frontend engineering.

I also dabbled a bit into backend engineering.

I Improved my Python skills. I started the year with some solid projects in Django. I learnt about REST APIs and how they work. I had to build a couple with Flask for some projects I took on.

The code that I write now is certainly not the best there is but comparing it to what I used to write, good improvement.

Here's something I learnt this year: Learn to be a software architect; not just a software engineer.

Some Projects

School-vue: During this long vacation, I’ve been working on a school management system using React and TS with Electron. We still need to add some finishing touches and get it ready for production. It’s all coming together really well. I’ve learnt a lotta stuff from it.

Eirhub: A healthcare web application that we built as our software engineering project work. Solid word, guys!

Machine Learning

I leant more algorithms this year. I’m on the verge of moving on to Deep Learning but I’m sort of holding myself back because I want to work on more projects and understand the inner workings of the basic algorithms I’ve been exposed to. I feel there’s still more to understand. It feels like I’m missing something.

I was able to independently work on machine learning projects without having to follow a tutorial or look up something that was already done. I took a couple of datasets and I was able to derive what I can from them. The models turned out to be pretty great.

Last year, I started reading this book ML book. I’ve not finished the full book but I’m glad I finished the first part. I’ve been a bit occupied throughout the year with school, the internship and being lazy. I should probably have done better. But then again, my focus wasn’t on finishing the book but rather understanding very well, the things the book is trying to teach me.

Social life + the fun!

Phew.

Enough of all the nerdy stuff. Arh!

Mozama disco was fun. The first concert I’d been to. Black Sheriff came to storm the place. I enjoyed the experience. The singing, the shouting, the heat 🔥.

I went paintballing with a couple of friends. That was lit. My team won some of the games but overall, we lost. I enjoyed myself that day, regardless. Thought I was playing COD for a second 🤣.

I went to the cinema to watch movies this year. Once with friends and twice alone. Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness. Thor: Love and Thunder. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

I made a lot of new friends this year. Yes, there’s been some failed attempts but we go again next year.

My birthday party was lit. Her cake was so nice. Shoutout. And of course, my very good friends were there to help make the day memorable. Wouldn’t have been the same without you guys. Plenty of Love 🫶🏾.

Game nights with very good friends. Those were lit. Looking forward to more in 2023.

First time taking an aeroplane 🤣. Loved some of the food. Others, I hated so much. The food we got on the plane, I mean. See how I’m stressing on the plane that much? That’s how exciting it felt.

I took lotta pictures this year. This is something that I’m not used to doing.

Silicon Valley (software engineering team) was a whole vibe.

I was able to open up a bit and express myself better. Part of my resolution for this year was for me to say “No” when I don’t want to do something. That didn’t go exactly as planned. I did say some “No-s” but I should have done more. Next year.

I started learning how to drive. I don’t know why and how it is possible that some people hate driving but I found it fun and calming. “I can do this all day” kinda vibes 😂.

It’s okay. I’m talking too much.

Honestly, there’s just so much that I’m grateful for this year.

I’m such a perfectionist. I still think that I could have done better with lotta things. Better consistency. Better relationships with people. Better conversation initiations, better something…

One thing I’ve learnt this year is to not deny compliments and make sure I give enough credit to myself. I think that sometimes we think too little of ourselves to the point where we don’t realise how long, a way, we have come.

The truth is that a lot of things happened this year - both positive and negative - but overall, it’s been a wonderful year and I’m grateful for all the enabling factors.

2023

I have to do more. I owe it to myself.

Yeah, I know that’s not a solid new year resolution but that’s all I’m going to put here for now.

As I always say: I don’t know what to look forward to. No expectations but I’m demanding myself to do better. I’m NOT without blemish. Yet? 💀