Ayu Adiati

Posted on Dec 24, 2020 • Edited on Jan 2, 2021 • Originally published at adiati.com

💌 Self-Reflection: My Letter To 2020

#writing #watercooler #codenewbie #webdev

Dear 2020,

You are such a roller coaster year for many of us.
And not an exception to me.

I can't say anything more than you have been a bittersweet year.

As a mom, it's very heartbreaking to see my daughter couldn't see her friends and teachers due to lockdowns and uncertainty.
But I'm grateful that she's still happy despite this situation.

As a wife, I am grateful that my husband still can keep his job, though I know that working from home for almost a year is very hard for him.

But you know, I still have more things to be grateful for than to complain about.
And that I and my family are healthy is one of them.

There is a saying, "Start to count your blessing and say your gratitude".
I do this every day, every time.
But this time, let me say some of them out loud in this letter.

📚 Learning

I got a year membership on egghead.
Not in a million years that I thought I would be able to access it (for a stay home mom without income, the membership is so out of my pocket).
Now it's one of my go-to resources for 1 whole year!
Thank you so much, Horacio & Michael Liendo, for making this happen! 🤗
I took Full-Stack Javascript Online Bootcamp by Flavio Copes (I got a huge group discount which I could afford).
I haven't finished the entire Bootcamp, but besides going deep into vanilla JS, I've taken a dip into some frameworks and databases such as Node JS, MongoDB, Redis, Airtable, GraphQL, React, and Vue.
And because I've tried those things out, I finally decided to learn React (and eventually GraphQL and NodeJS)!
I start the Frontend Career Path at Scrimba in September.
And I do enjoy it so far!
I start to dive into React!
Thank you, Bekah, for the Epic React Fundamental! I'm forever grateful! 😘

🎉 Achievement

I finished my first vanilla Javascript mini-project which adding up to a few more mini-projects.
I did my first open-source contribution!
I learned how to use git outside my personal project for the first time.
Special thanks to Dan Ott & Mike Rogers! 💙
I start to write blogs more regularly last November.
Thank you for the initiative of the November monthly-challenge, Virtual Coffee! 🙏
I even bought my own domain way sooner than I planned!
I start to learn about Google Analytics and SEO.
For someone who just starts to write for a little more than a month, looking at these analytics makes me really happy!

⭐ Events, Family & Friendship

One of the obstacles that I have as a stay home mom is I cannot do networking and attending events in person.
But because of you, 2020, I could attend several (big) virtual events, even for free! Thank you for that!
Thank you for keeping my friends closer, for crossing my path with these amazing people who support me tremendously in my journey, and for giving me a big new family! (not in order):
- Marika
- Bekah
- Francesca
- Wendy
- Frauke
- Sara Torrey
- Surayya
- Horacio
- Sophia
- Sara McCombs
- Dan
- Mike
- Meg
- Nick
- Kirk
- Debra-Kaye
- All Virtual Coffee members that I can't mention one by one, but each one of them means so much to me! ❤

So, however hard it was, thank you for still bringing beautiful things to me, 2020!

🙏 My Wish For 2021

I hope this year I could go further with my learning journey and landing a job.

I wish 2021 would be a much better year for all of us 🙏

Cheers,
Ayu Adiati

Top comments (10)

BekahHW • Dec 24 '20

Thank you so much, Ayu ❤️ I’m so happy to have you as part of my community and I’m grateful we have technology that allows us to be friends. Very much looking forward to continuing this friendship in 2021.