2020: The Good, The Bad and The Omo.

If you’re reading this and you’re one of my family members that sends me money, disregard this whole piece, I am broke. Send me money. Even if it’s I’m proud of you money🤲

I remember not doing a review for 2019 because, I allowed myself to believe I hadn’t achieved anything worth writing about( I was super wrong 2019 was a great year, and I am proud of the growth I made). If you’re reading this, it means I finally got the courage to write and publish a review of the past 365 days.

The Pre-COVID/Early COVID months (January -March)

January 2020 was my first month at university. I was admitted into the University of Lagos(UNILAG) to study Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering. I won’t lie I was super excited, for someone who isn’t interested in school, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience; standing for two hours of classes, not understanding a word of what came out of the lecturer’s mouth, walking from one end of school to another( UNILAG is a pretty small school), and most especially meeting people. I met pretty smart people, like really really really smart people.

The highlights of January were meeting Sodiq Akinjobi, joining DSC Unilag’s core team, and becoming a study group lead.

I don’t remember February being particularly memorable. I know I had my matriculation into UNILAG, became a lead tutor for ECX frontend classes( yo, I had to teach like 20–70 people, and I did great!), and continued leading the frontend study group. I remember preparing for tests; I all but shifted coding, clubs, and co-curricular to one side. As much as I wasn’t/am still not a fan of school, a smart chic like me can’t be packing F’s o wrong nau, so I read pretty hard. I also remember ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) declaring a warning strike, a strike that extended to the COVID lockdown. I never did write tests that month or that year (2020).

The COVID months (April- December)

For most people, I think March/April was the dreaded beginning of the end. The COVID-19 memes went from being funny to becoming reality, The lockdown began and slowly everyday life was brought to a halt. If I’m candid, this was when I abandoned my books I mean who reads in a PaNdeMic( In Elsa’s voice) , I picked coding back up, joined a flutter study group, and started my mobile development journey. I gave my first talk at Firebase Study Jam, Nairobi and contrary to the opinion of those who attended the talk, I messed up.

I turned 19, in June 2020 and men was I conflicted, I won’t say I had a mid-life crisis because last time I checked I am not middle-aged, but I did start re-evaluating my whole life, my self-confidence hit an all-time low and I started feeling way too old. I felt as though I should have achieved more in less time.

I got a Frontend gig sometime in July, It was the biggest I’d ever gotten and I was super excited, I received the first half of my payment and quite frankly I was shocked anyone would pay me that much to code. I’m pretty sure the money was what snapped me out of my ‘quarter-life crisis’. This was about the time I dropped my flutter to focus on my frontend gigs.

I spent a good chunk of this year working, learning and trying to become a better me. I also went out of my way to have fun, I visited places, I advocated for Amala and went out with friends (while obeying COVID-19 safety protocols of course) and had a great time.

The Good

• Getting my first freelance job.
• Getting my first full-time job.
• Getting my first pay in dollars.
• Earning 3x my net worth the last year.
• Making amazing friends(So so so many).
• Stopped maintaining a prim and proper twitter for the “fortune 500 company coming to hire me in 3 years” and started tweeting for me.
• Became more confident and less self-conscious.
• Went on a weight loss journey and burnt about 5kg( I have probably gained it back).
• Made my first big girl purchase( bought myself a phone).
• Gave 5 talks( Omo I Dey speak ).
• Joined awesome communities.
• Became a core team member of amazing communities.
• Started a blog.
• Wrote 3 technical articles( I know it’s poor plix stop shouting).
• Started learning 3 different languages: German, Swedish and Swahili( ended up dropping all after dropping one to pick the other ).
• Mentored amazing people.
• Made serious career growth.
• Started reading the Quran.

The Bad

I count myself lucky that the only bad moments I’d say I had were:

• The pandemic.
• Moments when I had anxiety attacks.
• The rejections.
• The strike(maybe ?).

The Omo

I think every single moment in 2020 was an Omo moment. I mean, it was a super crazy and ridiculously long year!

Conclusion

I’m grateful for life, thankful that none of my immediate/extended family members caught/died from the virus. I’m also grateful for ASUU, the real MVPs for the strike. I know for a fact I won’t have achieved a quarter of what I did if I were in school, stressing over some course. I mean there’s also the fact that I wasted ten months stuck in the first semester of the first year of my five-year course but you know potato potato.

So here I am on the last day of 2020 with articles in my drafts that I am yet to complete, an Android Studio Code I haven’t opened in months, Courses I’m yet to even start and a long list of ‘Tech I’m Learning in 2021’ and all I can say is I’m super excited for what is to come. I have grown so much this past year, and I want to thank everyone who helped me along the way. Special shout-out to Every single person on Q-devs, funny how every time I’d have an anxiety attack, I’d open up the group chat and they’d always make me feel better without even knowing it, My family, Victor, Daniel, Aramide, Akin, Sodiq, Sultan, Chidi, my Dev Career family, Obaji, Hafiz, Heritage, Shalom, Chidinma, Kayinsola, Wisdom. I have been blessed with the best family and friends. Thank you for everything.

Yours,

Bami ‘Hot Kek’ Ogunfemi.

Here’s a playlist of songs I listened to at some point in 2020.