Going into a two year-plus pandemic I wanted to stay extremely busy, so immersed myself in a lot of different groups and projects. I put myself out there and was able to get over a fear of public speaking.
I had goals for 2020 set, before everything went south and we all locked ourselves away for a year. I accomplished more than what I had planned and some things I did at the drop of a hat with no preparing or planning.
I had been a member of the W3C and would just sit in meeting and not say an awful lot. Just a hello and introduction to who I was.
I felt a huge amount of imposter syndrome sitting in meetings with folks from Microsoft, Oracle, Google, etc. There I was, just some random nobody who was trying to keep busy.
As time went on and I got more comfortable with meetings and talking with people who were just like me. Human beings. I was able to open up and contribute what I could and interact more. About two (maybe more) weeks ago, I was finally approved for the title of Invited Expert, which was something I had on my list of goals.
Strike one goal off the list and mark it accomplished.
Some other accomplishments:
- Spoke at a few virtual conferences.
- BarCamp Philly (the first I ever spoke at)
- #a11yTOConf
- Web Directions AAA
- I spoke at ConnectTech in Atlanta. (First live talk ever)
- Wrote articles for Smashing Magazine and CSS-Tricks
- Appeared on a bunch of terrific podcasts and livestreams.
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Started a podcast.
- Producing audio and video versions.
- Moved from Maine to Arizona.
- Underwent two surgeries.
- Was named Smashing Magazine's Person of the Week
- Celebrated leveling up to Level 50 on my level up day (birthday).
- Worked at an amazing company, with some amazing people at Knowbility.
- Moved on to my current role as Accessibility Engineer at WebstaurantStore
- Started a podcast about accessibility and code with Homer Gaines.
2022 is going to be a busy year, so I best get back to getting to it. I pat myself on the back for what I accomplished and for whatever you did in 2021, give yourself a pat on the back as well. You deserve the kudos.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Top comments (2)
I hope you continue to knock it out of the park this year Todd! (Still waiting on the video from that conference we were talking about on Twitter, did it ever get released?)
Can I ask, what is the time commitment for W3C as I was always intrigued by that?
Keep being awesome Lobster Roll man! 🤣
I haven't found the videos online yet. I will take a look and ask around again!