I started this year quite sad because I didn’t get admission into the university. Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
I’m the kind of person that likes writing down my dreams and aspirations, that way I continually pray and work towards them.
The above image shows what I wrote down on February 2nd 2020, I had already planned to study petroleum engineering at the University of Lagos(UNILAG) in line with my goal of being a Minister of Petroleum. Like the popular saying goes
“Man proposes but God disposes”.
I guess that was not what I was meant to fulfil because it didn’t work out. Last year, I wrote some of the things I hope to do after school and the main thing on my mind was graphics design. Why you may ask? Well, I like seeing designs, fliers etc. I feel it’s a way of expressing oneself, but I couldn’t draw (not even a cup😅) so I didn’t pursue it to my surprise coding was part of what I wanted to do.
When I was done with school in September last year I forgot about it😪. I was more focused on waiting for my admission and it never came.
Late last year my sister (Makuo) who is a UI/UX designer worked on a countdown to Christmas website using HTML, CSS & JS. That got my attention and that’s how my journey began.
January.
In January this year, I decided to start my tech career with Front end development. I started watching a web development video by Edureka and I also joined Agba Akin on Twitter who was teaching people how to code at the beginning of the year. I started with the basics of HTML, I had a book I used to write down some things I learnt. During this period I gradually knew what front-end development was about.
I normally submitted my assignment by making a tweet about it(this was how we were directed to submit it).
February.
I started attending lessons to prepare for my upcoming exams, so I spent less time coding for a while. I also participated in a little task and I think I did well. This particular task was challenging because it was more complexed.
Later that month I started taking a course on Coursera by the University of California, Davis on Introduction to front-end development. The course was well explained and easy to understand.
March.
I completed my Coursera course and got my first-ever certificate. I felt proud because I finished what I started, it was a big win for me.
I later applied for Side Hustle Internship 5.0 internship and I got accepted. I chose the front-end track. We made use of an LMS wherein each week we got recorded videos of our classes with resources too.
I liked that method of teaching. We got to work on projects as a team and our score would reflect on our leaderboard. At the end of each week’s lesson, we are expected to take a quiz to test our knowledge of what we learnt.
It was now time to take an exam for the classes I was taking on Twitter. I was tense but I got 73%, I was kind of expecting more but I was happy I did well. I got my certificate the same day too.
I also received a scholarship to further my web development course on AptLearn. I completed my course there and started doing more research on the next steps to take.
My sister got posted to serve outside Lagos but she left her laptop with me to continue my learning journey, I was so happy.
April.
I don’t remember much about what happened in April. I guess I focused more on my lessons. I also enrolled for Zuri training but I didn’t finish because I didn’t have a laptop.
May.
I got a scholarship from Dev careers in partnership with Progate, this scholarship gave me access to the Progate pro plan for 90 days. During this period I posted want I learnt via my Twitter account.
Later that month I got accepted to the Women Techster Cohort 2.0 Bootcamp and also got my first-ever internship.
When I applied for the internship I thought I wouldn’t get it so I was surprised. During this internship, I worked for MyInsure as a social media manager. I didn’t have any knowledge about it before but I learnt the basics during the internship which led me to start my career as a social media manager and I have been trying to improve my skills. I don’t remember the particular months I started so I will just mention the places I have worked/work as a social media manager:
MyInsure is a platform where you can buy phone insurance and get your phone repaired for free when it gets damaged. Ensure you insure your phone.
This is a non-profit organisation(I volunteered, so I still work there) with the aim to provide resources like laptops, courses etc to designers. It was formed by Areous earlier this year, hopefully, by next year the goal will start being a reality.
Eddify is an online marketplace that helps students find the right education products and services for their needs. We work with a network of educational vendors and consultants to bring you the best deals on everything from tutoring services to college consulting.
With Scrim, you can send money using Twitter handles, email addresses and phone numbers. You also get to redeem directly to your bank or redeem as crypto. You can get download the app by clicking on this link.
This internship I got helped me develop another aspect of myself I wasn’t sure I had because I started creating written contents and threads too, this made me interested in writing.
I don’t remember the exact month I registered for JAMB(this is an exam written to get into a university in Nigeria) but my exam was on the first day by 7 am. I was among the first batch and I was happy so I could just put that aside and do some other things.
I also went to my first tech event, which was hosted by Interswitch. I went with my parents, it was a good experience, I learnt things from the speakers who shared their experiences. I didn’t network because I was quite shy but since that day I decided I would attend tech events that were convenient for I and my dad. All the tech events I have been to my dad always followed me, and my mom accompanies us sometimes too. They have been very supportive during my learning journey.
June.
I continued my boot camp which lasted for three weeks after which I worked on a group project. I continued using Progate to learn too.
I started applying for entry-level jobs in front-end development but I got a lot
of rejections but I continued applying.
I applied for a scholarship and got rejected, I decided to focus on using the resources I had available at the moment.
I celebrated the one-month anniversary of my internship. I was happy that I lasted that long and I was able to deliver.
I also decide to learn Tailwind CSS which is a CSS framework. I documented my learning journey too.
July.
I made a social media manager portfolio and a front-end developer portfolio for myself. I made use of HTML, CSS & JS.
I attended Genz hackfest also and I got to meet some of my friends. It was a nice event cause it made me understand that no matter your age you can also make a difference.
I also attended an AltSchool event in partnership with AWS. I got to meet a lot of amazing people.
I also got selected to be an ambassador of The Girls' Techie. It is a nonprofit student-run, all-female organisation aimed at empowering, connecting and inspiring young girls in STEM.
My sister came back to carry her laptop and my coding came to an end for a while. I decided to focus on social media management and technical writing, instead of being idle.
August.
I completed my internship and received a certificate of completion. I was proud of how far I came.
I also participated in Hashnode’s 4articles4weeks which was a contest to post one article per week for four weeks straight. I posted the article on my blog. I also took part in the Web3ladies cohort 3 mentorship program but I didn’t stay till the end because I didn’t have a laptop to use. Before the main training started I was thought a few things about web3, I wrote them in this blog.
September.
I received another scholarship from Devcareer in association with Dataquest.
I started using my phone to learn python via Dataquest and also started posting daily updates.
I had a feeling my phone was going to crash because I felt like I was using it for things it wasn’t meant to be used for and besides I have been using it for quite a while.
Sadly my phone crashed but I got another one days later through my family. Then I downloaded apps like Sololearn, Mimo & Datacamp to continue my learning process. It was easier because my new phone is bigger and better than the old one.
October.
I turned 18. Since 2022, I and my dad started taking photoshoots for our birthdays and it has become a tradition now. On my birthday I attended the Technext conference.
I continued coding on my phone and hoping one day I will get a job. I volunteered for CityJs Lagos, it was a nice experience and I’m looking forward to the next one.
Then I also started partaking in Replit 100Daysofcode for python.
I’m not yet done with the 100 days but I always update the thread. I also joined The Hallelujah Challenge which my friend Chinyere introduced me to. It was a memorable experience.
November.
I won a laptop from Hacksultan, in a way I lost hope that I could even get a laptop but God answered me. It was part of the prayer points I wrote down in my Hallelujah book and God has started answering my prayer points.
I realised I had to make a decision concerning what path I wanted to continue with, I chose front end but in the future, I hope to be a machine learning engineer.
I also became a GenzTechie ambassador. I registered for Technovation and my team had to pick a project to work on and my idea was chosen. It’s an app that helps recommend things you should avoid and things you should use to get the best out of your skin without damaging it, this is just the basic idea of it. Some features will still be added, I hope we win too.
I worked on some front-end challenges via Front end mentors.
December.
One of the challenges I did, you can check out the website here.
I also worked on a landing page for a tech school I named Studyvile. I came up with the design and implemented the code.
For now, I want to sharpen my Javascript skills and learn React too.
Summary.
2022 was indeed a good year. When you take time to think about those things you would be amazed at yourself. Don’t compare yourself with people who you see going on trips and all, your turn will come at the right time.
Posting what I was learning on Twitter helped me, that way people saw that I was making an effort and I think that’s one of the reasons I was able to win my laptop and data subscriptions too.
I learnt that God answers prayer, when I was introduced to the Hallelujah challenge I told myself that I’m normally awake during the time they start and I decided to key in. I gained a lot from it.
My piece of advice is hard work pays and God will reward you in due time so don’t think less about yourself.
Cheers to 2023🥂.