Another exciting year has started. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on everything that happened in 2018 as it was an exciting year for me, both career-wise and personally.

This is my first blog post, like my first ever blog post. So take it easy on me.

Career

I started developing a keen interest in front-end nuances and decided to look for opportunities where I could nourish and improve my front-end skills. I quit my old job and landed a Frontend focussed role in an amazing company. Everyday I see myself becoming a better dev than the previous day.

Talks and Meetups

• I attended a meetup on Frontend Frameworks war - by Facebook Developer Circle, Chennai.
• Along with 5 other folks I gave a talk on “Virtual and Augmented Reality” and “Pillars of Web - HTML, CSS and JS” to undergrad students.

Achievements Unlocked

• Bagged first place in a hackathon
• Completed hacktoberfest and kick started my open source contributions. (Can’t wait to receive my hacktoberfest goodies)
• Took part in Codevember (first timer here). I got to see a lot of codepen inspirations and I’m totally into it now.
• Created a few CSS illustrations, mostly inspired from dribbble shots. Here’s my handle for the curious - https://codepen.io/ruphaa/

Health and Fitness

• Started working out and I hit the gym 5 times a week now.
• Took up 30 days yoga challenge and completed successfully. Yoga magically gives you a sense of inner peace, boosts up your confidence and improves your focus.

Bummers

• I took up the #100DaysOfCode challenge but somewhere down the line I got side-tracked.
• I started Codevember challenge with all fury but ended up not completing it.
• Planned to build a portfolio but didn’t make much progress in that.

Lessons Learnt

Setbacks are inevitable. But what we learn from it is what’s important. I set a lot of luxurious goals but didn’t plan and manage my time accordingly. So I’m gonna try and focus on

• Setting realistic goals
• Focussing on one thing at a time

What’s in store for 2019

• Write more blog posts.
• Build a portfolio
• Listen to 3 podcasts every week
• Read 1 blog post every day
• Create 1 codepen every week
• Complete at least 1 round of #100DaysOfCode and log it
• Read 10 books

2018 was really an amazing year for me. Started the year low but looking back, I am grateful for everything. Not yet over, I am so grateful to have a wonderful mentor @flexdinesh , for all the career guidance and motivation that set me on the right track.

Have an amazing year ahead!