I went into 2024 without having huge expectations, I hoped to get my finances up, get married, and hopefully stay alive till the year ends. A little bit macabre, yes I know, I just try to remain conscious about my mortality as much as I can.
TL:DR, 2024 was very good AlhamduliLaah.
Making it through the year is in itself a great feat, one to be thankful for, not necessarily proud of, because it was in Allaah’s hands all through. Anyhow, it’s still early to say. Writing this on the 28th of December, there’s still enough time to die and get buried. I pray we are all granted long lives, good health, and sustainable sustenance :)
I moved into a new apartment late last year, so the earlier parts of this year were me adjusting to a new environment, getting used to the long walks to the mosque, living in an almost space that is slowly mapping out fine, and getting used to new neighbors. Being such an introvert, very few people know my name, and I know very few people’s names, but we say hi every now and then.
I think my best lifestyle improvement this year has been playing table tennis regularly, I’m part of a table tennis club where I play at least twice a week and also play on Sundays with some of my friends. Beyond the exercise, it also serves as a way for us to get updated with each other’s lives and knock off the stress from the week, very important stuff.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfjROTiXIAAAqZf?format=jpg&name=large
I also tried to pay more attention to my dressing, I even dyed my hair twice
https://x.com/_asipita/status/1834990634408476698
Interestingly, I did get stopped by police officers about 15 minutes after entering Ilorin, but after a few questions, they let me go. That was the second time I got stopped by police officers this year (2024), the first time was just because I was dressing sharp 😅, but it went the same way, a few needless questions, and I was allowed to leave. I think the most interesting that happened to me during my coloured hair days was when a guy came to me on my way home and told me “Cana dey o, loud dey, tramadol dey, anyone you want”.
I also resumed madrasah, thrice a week. I have been inconsistent, but I’m hoping to improve on that too.
I started working at a new company a few months into 2024, and the journey has been nothing but amazing. For the first time, I was working directly with a lot of senior Engineers on the frontend, I was used to working on teams where I was the sole frontend developer or teams where I was on the same level as the other frontend engineers. But here, the knowledge gap was clear and over the months, I’ve learned so much and can now see why some past interviews went sideways.
One thing I realised from this was that the tech space was a competition - not only with James who graduated with a first class in OAU or Chidinma that has been building software projects since 200 level; but also with Asian wizkids and people with waay better systems than we have in Nigeria. Just because I could answer the interview questions and complete the take-home assignments did not mean I provided the best solution. If I were given some of the same tasks I was given back then, I’d make them 10 times better, however, back then, some other people probably already submitted the 10 times better version. One quote I’ve come to like is “Stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready”. Especially in a field like tech, world-class is the only way to go.