2018: Retro

2018 is gradually winding down and as I started to do in 2016 (Yas! 💪). It wasn’t perfect but it came with mistakes, learning, and a lotta love.

Learning

It was a year I had my first ever public speaking about work and I’m shouting out to the team that organized Forloop Abeokuta led by Oluwaseun Hamzat for giving me the platform to share my knowledge and experience with others. I was a bit nervous when I got the invite since it’s something I have never done but it was fun and I hope to get more opportunities like this in the coming year.

I was lucky to make some mistakes around adaptability when I switched some work patterns and as such that has helped reinforce some learnings that were learned passively. Also, learned about how to effectively communicate technical details to non-technical people. Even though it is one of those things I kinda knew how to but I’ve not adequately practiced and 2018 gave me lots of opportunities to do that.

Personally, I learned when to speak up on matters you care about rather than thinking silence and patience would fix it. Also, I was able to reinforce been transparent with folks while not sharing more information than they need to know.

Family

I don’t think my retro articles will ever be complete without me shouting out my family ’cause I couldn’t possibly be part of a better family that cares about each other’s wellness and happiness than mine. Also, shout out to the woman I call mine ’cause I’m glad you were part of my 2018 (Love you, Babe!)

Love/Hate

2018 seems like an awful nightmare ’cause it was a year that saw the rise of inhumane treatment of humans by humans ’cause of geographical inequalities which made me sad as a human seeing increased anti-migrant rhetorics when historically, Humans have always moved from one place to another and contributed positively to the growth of their new home.

In the midst of all these hate rhetorics, I’m glad there are people out there trumping hate with love. I’m thankful for all of you and I hope those that think loving one another irrespective of color or any classification we created to make us different from one another can see at the core that Love is all we need.

As we go into the new year, I wish us all the best 2019 has to offer and want us to remember “Helping our fellow humans does not in any way affect our chances of a better life”. Thanks for reading and do have a great year!