Twenty Nineteen: Beyond Expectations.
There are a lot of people who are products of opportunities. But opportunities don’t just come your way, you have to identify them when they do and make the utmost use of them. This is my 2019 in a single sentence. A year full of identifying and utilizing opportunities to impact lives.
This is my first time of penning down my year in words. I never really saw the importance of writing a year-in-review until of recent when I discovered that a lot of people get to do amazing stuff but never get to share their stories. I’ve read a lot of year-In-reviews just this month and I’ve learned so much from people sharing stories of their achievements, their failures, and setbacks. So I decided to write mine.
I started this year without a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve. I did pen down some few goals but the only thing I knew was I wanted to become better than I previously was.
Looking back, I’d say I was only lucky that the year turned out great, well, not so great but at least way beyond my expectations.
The Community
While we could refer to a normal community as a group of people or a social unit with common interests, it’s far from that in a tech Ecosystem.
In a tech community, we’re a family willing to go extra miles to help each other grow. I’m a product of the community. Most of my wins this year were a result of being a part of a vibrant ecosystem.
Artificial Intelligence Saturdays, Abeokuta.
AI Saturdays, fondly called AI6 is a community-driven, non-profit global movement aimed at making Artificial Intelligence Education at the quality and rigor of the world's best universities, accessible to anyone for free. There are over 5000 participants in 100 cities worldwide and here in Abeokuta, we hope to help build the future of AI by making its education available to everyone within and around the city.
I volunteered to help facilitate this awesome community since mid-2018, around when it was birthed by our wonder woman Khaulat Ayomide.
We started our second cycle in April 2019(A cycle consist of 16 consecutive Saturdays), the previous cycle held in 2018(8th Sept — 22nd Dec).
We were able to introduce over 50 participants into the world of AI and taught the consistent ones the basics of machine learning algorithms and how to implement them in python. This wouldn’t have been possible without the selflessness and undiminished commitment of some amazing people; Habeeb Kehinde Shopeju, Soliudeen Ogunsola, Fola, Hussein Sanni, AKINJOBI Sodiq. Credit again goes to our amazing lead Khaulat Ayomide, a lot wouldn’t have happened without her.
Developer Student Clubs.
I previously mentioned that I am a product of the community, one of the communities that has really fostered my self-development is the DSC.
The DSC is a Google Developers community that empowers students to grows as developers and impact their communities with technology by training them and getting them to solve local problems.
On gaining admission into the university, I wanted a community where I could share ideas, get mentors and collaborate. The DSC seemed perfect for me so I made sure I was active in the community and it did foster my personal development. I got to know I could apply to be a lead through Olatunbosun Egberinde, the previous lead and he supported me through the whole application process. I applied to lead the DSC program in my school around April and got accepted on August 6.
Shortly after my selection as the lead, I got an invitation to attend an SSA community Leads Summit in Accra, Ghana.
The summit brought together GDG, DSC and WTM leads in sub-Saharan Africa. I got the opportunity to meet some of the most talented and brilliant minds I have ever met. It was an incredible experience, the very best I have had in the tech-space. It was a 3-day summit and we got to learn how best we could build our communities, engage our members and become better versions of ourselves from Googlers, GDE’s and other amazing speakers. A lot happened at the summit, I really should have written about my experience at the summit.
On returning to my school, I and my DSC core Team have been able to put together several impactful events and workshops over the past few months.
Open Source Community Africa, Abeokuta
On getting to Abeokuta(I gained admission), I realized things where a bit different regarding the tech community. The Ecosystem was close to being dead because we had little to no communities, the only active one was AI6 abk. I wanted to change that, I needed a safe space for myself and like minds. There was the DSC, but it was a student community, I wanted more! I knew I couldn’t achieve this alone. Then, applications opened to start new OSCA chapters late last year. I was skeptical at first, but I got a lot of support and encouragement from Soliudeen Ogunsola. If not for him, I wouldn’t have applied.
Around the same time I got accepted to lead the DSC in my school, I got an acceptance mail from OSCA too. Both mails came on the same day! I felt handling two communities was too much to handle but I was keen on making a change, so I accepted to lead both communities. 3 months after, November 30th precisely, I and my team (Web Mayer, Majiyagbe Oluwole, Emmanuel….) organized the first-ever Open Source Event in Abeokuta! It was an incredible experience and we did have a lot of fun. Thanks to our sponsor's Gatsby JS and First Pavilion Technologies.
Andela Learning Community
Early November, I got this call from the Program Assistant for the southwest II region, Nigeria at Andela asking if I’d be willing to take on the role of the Lead Facilitator of Ogun State. The previous lead was Graduating from school and would no longer be in town afterward. This was another Opportunity to Impact lives and get to mentor ALC learners, I thought to myself. So yeah, I said yes! We had a Grand Finale meet up for the learners which was super amazing.
DevFests
I was opportuned to have attended 4 DevFest’s this year.
While in Accra for the Summit, I attended my very first DevFest Event(#DevFest Accra). It wasn’t my first time or year of hearing about the event, I’ve not just been privileged to attend any.
Two months later, I spoke at DevFest Ajah about automating Tasks On Dynamic Websites using Crawlers.
Other DevFest I was privileged to attend with some of my DSC members Includes; DevFest Ibadan and DevFest Lagos.
Not Community?
Most of my 2019 was Spent Freelancing, pretty bad. I did get hundreds of rejections both Internships and job applications and I’m not Exaggerating by saying “Hundreds”. I later figured that I needed to learn more than I actually knew already, PS I had a really terrible CV.
I worked on a few Open Source Projects too and you can check my Github repo.
I also wrote a few articles.
School? Well, not so much to talk about….
Social life? I literally don’t have one….
Setbacks/Failures
- At the beginning of 2019, I made a goal to write 2 Articles Every Month. I’ve only written 4 all through the year😢.
- I applied for GSoC to Mozilla and got Rejected 😢
- I got tons of SE Internship and job rejections. (I’m thinking of collating my rejection emails in a photos album 😆).
- My Grades were consistently poor in school, not everyone would refer to it as poor but I know I could have done way better. I didn’t strike a balance between Code and School.
- My growth rate(Learning wise) was Incredibly poor this year. I spent more time working on projects than learning.
- I’m a lazy reader, I made a goal to read about 4 books before the year runs out, I read only one and didn’t complete the second.
- ………….
2019 Takeaways?
One important lesson I learned from this year is that it’s okay to fail. This might sound weird, but failure is a big part of success, the success we’re yet to achieve. It teaches us other ways to think about or do stuff. So yeah, I’ve learned to embrace failure. It helps me realize why I failed.
2020?
I can’t wait to see what it unfolds but, unlike 2019 I have a clearer picture of where I’m headed. I want to do more for the community, I want to help and watch people grow. To do this, I have to be on top of my game. So 2020 is mostly about learning and the community for me.
Last Words?
A lot of stuff that happened in 2019 was unplanned for, I didn’t plan to lead a community, Organize meetups or grow incredibly such that people now look up to me. I guess the community decided to bless me with such amazing responsibilities.
The community has helped me grow incredibly, I’d say the community is like a boomerang, It gives you back exactly what you throw at it. So in 2020, I hope to throw a lot of good stuff at the community.
Cheers to a wonderful year ahead 🍻🍻.
