2022 Reflection - A year in the life of Louise ✨

As we hang up our coats for 2022 we get inundated with wrap ups and throw backs and it's a great time to think about achievements you've made, big or small! Have you ticked off anything from your bucket list? Your 1 year or 5 year goals? Are you where you thought you would be as you welcomed the year in?

This is also a big year for me as I will be saying goodbye to my 20s this year! 👀

Looking back can be quite daunting, especially if it didn't go the way you planned but could you learn from that, do you have any takeaways to help you this year?

I learnt a lot last year, work and personal and these are a few milestones I made this year:

I started the year as a Junior Developer, living in a flat share with my Tortoise Harry and was trying to create my personal brand on LinkedIn and Instagram.

🫠 Rise and Fall of personal branding.

Throughout the year I went from regularly posting on LinkedIn and instagram to not at all. Although consistency is key, i struggle with this as i can be a complete hermit and get caught up with life without thinking to talk about it. (this will be something I forever need to work on).

🏡 House move

After years of saving and working on my debt and credit score, I finally moved into my first flat!

❤️ Mental Health Journey

I personally am a highly sensitive person, i've always known this and so I went to therapy to better understand myself and my mental health. I even did training courses on how i can use this with my career, how i can make it my superpower.

⛑️ Certified training course.

I became first aid trained through a training course with my work.

🥂 I was nominated for Digital Woman of the Year and became a Digital Woman to Watch 2022.

This was such an amazing a serial moment for me! As a woman in tech i've joined a few communities to network with likeminded woman and read about their amazing journeys. So to be nominated and become a Digital Woman to Watch was incredible.

⭐️ I shed some lockdown weight!

We all have many memories from lockdown and so i won't go into it too much, it was just huge for me to finally lose some of the weight i had gained!

👩🏼‍💻 Built my first game out of JavaScript.

We started a new section in our Retro meetings where someone can share something they've done or built in or outside of work. It's been great fun and a lot of the team members have really shown their creativity and we've learnt a lot from each other. I took the opportunity to build a game out of HTML, CSS and JS. I had recently built something at work where it uses your mouse co-ordinates and so i used this to build a little maze game, it was a lot of fun 😊

🐈 Helped raise money for WoodGreen Charity (a very special charity to me).

Unfortunately last year i had to re-home my beloved cats. They mean the world to me and so was not an easy decision to make. WoodGreen Charity were amazing with helping me throughout this whole process and so i raised money for them by doing a bake sale at work. I raised close to £200 that day thanks to the help and support of my friends, family and colleagues. This year i will be raising money again by doing a 99 mile walk in February 👏🏻

🎉 I learnt animations

Another really fun thing i learnt last year was CSS animations and transitions. I initially built and shared something in the Retro of an animated scene showing the difference between animations and transitions. (i'll write a separate post for this as it was great fun to build). I then went on to build more animations, a walking man, a tiny violin... Its been a lot of fun.

🍝 Cooked my first roast dinner.

And it was very tasty! 🤩

🎉 Promoted to Front End Developer and Deputy to the Head of Development.

This was such an incredible moment for me. As a career this is where i want to go, i fell in love with front end development and to finally lose the Junior title was such an achievement as part of this journey. Then to be made deputy to my team lead was an even bigger shock but excitement! He has supported me throughout my journey and has been a great mentor so to be trusted with this role was and still is an honour.

🎉 Top Author 2022

I ended the year receiving an email from Dev.to about being a Top Author on DEV in 2022, i was not expecting that 😅 i absolutely loved the little sticker gift, thank you 🥰 i may not have written in a while but i still love to come here and read other peoples posts, i learn a lot from here so thank you all 🙂

I ask you to join me and raise a glass to 2022, the highs and the lows. I look forward to 2023 and what it brings 🥂