Since the coronavirus pandemic boom in March 2020, I have been thinking a lot about my career and my personal life and many things have changed in this 1 year of working from home.
In the middle of the pandemic, I quit my job, moved to another country and have been trying to find how to add value to this world. Excitement, fear, satisfaction, anxiety and many other emotions took over me and made me reflect a lot on myself and my professional future.
Life is not just making code
The world of development changes very fast and we, the developers, tend to think that we are not studying enough and, therefore, we try to do everything to be super devs.
For me, being a great developer meant coming home after a tiring day of work and continuing to write code, taking advantage of every minute of my return home to study something new through books and podcasts ... In other words, I thought of using all my time to learn and become a better professional. And it was like that for years (with different intensities depending on the period).
When the pandemic came in March 2020 and I started working from home, I wanted to take advantage of that moment to use all my time to level up in my career. So I created a schedule for my daily life: working, studying, creating projects on github, writing for my blog, helping the community... It worked for a while, but then I felt exhausted.
It was then that I really realized the importance of life balance and that without it, as much as we become better professionals, without health we cannot sustain a brilliant career for a long time.
More than developers, we are humans
After some time working from home and watching the world go through so many uncertainties, I started to think not only about writing code for the rest of my life, but about using my knowledge to really help the world in some way through the skills I already have.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been involved in minority debates on youtube and instagram. I think people around the world started to question themselves more about the value of our human relationships and I got on that wave. Then in August 2020, I decided to quit my job and have time for myself. It was a difficult period, very emotionally unstable. But at the same time, it was a moment of profound reflection on life and this made me map out some ideas to help the world be a better place.
I started to wonder if I wanted to continue my whole life working because of career success and better salaries, or if I wanted to add value to this world by really helping to improve people's lives through my work.
Taking a break and making a dream come true is possible
I always wanted to live outside Brazil. It was then that I decided to move to Ireland in the midst of all these changes. I confess that there were many emotions involved; I was excited, but at the same time scared because of the instabilities of that dark time. I arrived without a job and was willing to start from scratch.
My first months in Dublin, Ireland, were very intense and unusual: new places, new people, a different culture and language ... In addition, the country is facing one of the most extensive lockdowns in the world. And all of this took me out of control of my plans: I was no longer able to study or write for my blog and I also started to lose my enthusiasm for finding life-balance and helping the world. I didn't want to do anything else.
I charged myself a lot. I wanted to find the strength to continue my plans, but I couldn't. I confess that I was very afraid of losing all the skills I acquired over the years because I was no longer involved in creating codes. I even thought about giving up being a developer, such was my anxiety. But that time was necessary for me to be able to organize everything that was happening in my life. It is only now, six months after arriving at the Emerald Island that I am able to find a routine and plan myself again.
I learned that taking a break does not mean that I am giving up my career or my planned life. Sometimes we need a break to compose ourselves and find strength again and, consequently, to transcend.
And about the job, I've been working remotely as a developer for a company since 3 months after I got here. :)
Conclusion
It is ok not to be ok. I discover that being a good developer goes far beyond “work hard”. Life balance is the key.
We often want to be strong and show that we are doing well. We often do not respect our limits and force ourselves to move on. We often distance ourselves from our essence and forget how valuable life is. In this last one year working from home I have been learning that life is not just about a successful career and making codes. And I hope I can find a way to really contribute to a better world through my work.
And what have you learned in this pandemic time?
Thank you for reading this post. I hope it can help you in some way.
See you next time! ❤
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