DEV Community: Anuradha

Grateful for 2024, Inspired for 2025

Anuradha — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 18:07:51 +0000

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good start to 2025. As we welcome a new year, it's time for me to reflect upon the year that 2024 was and write a review.

I have been doing these year-end reviews for the past 3 years (2021, 2022, 2023) and I enjoy writing this and reading it later.

Although I always write and publish these write-ups by the first week of January, 2025 started differently. At first, I felt pressure, to publish this soon, and then I realized there was no real rush. It's my review and I can publish it when I can. So, here we go...

Dancing through the storms

2024 was a terrific year, chaotic yet beautiful. At times, it felt like I was weathering storm after storm, and I wasn't sure I could make it through.

But now, looking back, I realize that not only did I overcome those challenges, but I did so while showing up for myself and excelling in the key areas of my life.

I had a variety of experiences, tried many new things, read extensively, learned a lot, and traveled far. I also gained a deeper understanding of who I am and what I want.

I believe that 2024 was the year that prepared me for an even more beautiful and amazing future, and I am forever grateful for that.

Healthy and Happy

I started 2024 with the theme of Healthy and Happy and I did try my best to follow through with that. There were hiccups with my health, but I tried my best to live a healthier life. I am going to continue that this year as well.

Good times

Good times and lots of laughter with my family and friends, both in the Netherlands and India. I spent a significant time meeting and connecting with friends this year.

I am grateful to be blessed with amazing people in my life who check up on me and who I can rely on, and they are just like my family here. I also met lots of new people this year and made new connections (thanks to travel and conferences largely).

I mostly travel solo, but I also enjoyed traveling to some amazing places with my friends this year, like Ghent, Cologne, Luxembourg, Giethoorn, and Anna Paulowna.

2025 has also started on a good note on this aspect and I am going to continue to plan and meet my friends more this year as well. To more good times and a lot of laughter and shared experiences.

Career

I joined my current company in November 2023, so 2024 has been a year of exploration — getting to know my role better, understanding company objectives, and technologies used, and contributing to my team’s goals. It has been a valuable and ongoing learning experience.

I also enjoyed incorporating accessibility into my daily work and learning from my colleagues along the way.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to focus even more on growth and making meaningful contributions.

Speaking at conferences

In 2024, I had a great time delivering 3 workshops and 7 talks across different countries. These experiences allowed me to meet new people, gain insights into the tech scene in various cities, and learn from other speakers at these events.

It was both enriching and inspiring, and I look forward to continuing this journey in the coming year.

I also had major wins in this area as I continue to be Google Developer Expert and Microsoft MVP for another year as well.

I am honored to be part of these programs and I am looking forward to another year of impactful contributions and collaborations.

Traveling around the world

2024 was an incredible year for travel, as I set out to explore more of Europe. I traveled to 12 countries this year, and they brought me so much joy. Two of my most favorite visits were:

UK: Cambridge, London, Middlesbrough, and Whitby
Greece: Athens, Mycenae, Nafplion, and Epidaurus

The best part of travel is the stories that we will tell for years to come, like the one I have from CityJS Athens.

In 2025, I am looking forward to more travel memories.

Reading

I read some books in 2024, and then some more, and then some more. And thanks to Goodreads, my 2024 year in books tells me that I read 53 books in total.

I explored different genres and thoroughly enjoyed the journey of learning, gaining knowledge, and experiencing the wisdom of incredible authors.

A few of my favorite reads are:

2025 has started well for reading. Since January was a bit of a struggle for me, books provided me with the safe space for my mind like they always do. My goal for this year is to read more and explore more books from authors around the world.

Trying new things

In 2024, I embraced trying new things, and each experience was incredibly enriching. I started learning to swim, visited a board game café and a cat café, and even tried Lego building—all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I also did an escape room, which was a lot of fun, and attended The Lord of the Rings movie with orchestra, an absolutely breathtaking experience. Another highlight was attending the premiere of a famous Dutch show at Bijlmer Arena, where I got to enjoy a wonderful red carpet moment.

Throughout the year, I followed my heart and booked experiences I was excited about whenever I traveled to a new country, creating countless beautiful memories.

In 2025, I’m committed to continuing this journey—stepping out of my comfort zone and trying even more new things.

More time in nature

I wanted to spend more time in nature, and I did just that—enjoying long walks on beaches, through dunes, and in forests, all while taking in breathtaking sunsets.

These moments brought me so much happiness, and I look forward to experiencing even more of them in 2025.

Thank you 2024

All in all, 2024 was the year I lived to the fullest.

I feel so proud and grateful for everything, and I feel so blessed to have lived through 2024 ❤️.

Greetings 2025

I am looking forward to this new year, and my theme for 2025 is Go for it

This year, I’m going to live boldly, passionately, and to the fullest.

Also, I would love to read your year-end reviews or recaps, celebrate your 2024, and hype you up for 2025 and beyond.

So do share them with me in the comments, or on linkedin.

A very happy and wonderful new year to everyone, I hope this year is the best year yet.

So, let's go for it!!

Exploring the Charm of Ghent: A Journey Through Picturesque Delights

Anuradha — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 07:16:55 +0000

Hi everyone, I have been thinking of writing my travel experiences for quite a while, and what better time to begin than with the first trip of this brand new year? So, let's dive in.

I write this from my perspective, places I visited and what were my experiences.

Why do I travel?

Traveling to new places is something that refreshes my mind and soul. I love exploring different countries, cities, cultures, histories, and the beauty of nature. And so, I am always thinking about planning a new trip haha.

Why Ghent?

In 2024, I want to travel more, so I was just zooming in to Google Maps, narrowing down my list of desired destinations for the first trip of the year. That's when I spotted Ghent!

Ghent is a vibrant city in the northwest of Belgium. I have always wanted to visit Ghent, ever since I visited Bruges (my first trip to Belgium). I love visiting Belgium because:

There are so many amazing places and so much to explore.
Stunning architectures
I love fries and waffles
Perhaps most importantly, Belgium is an ideal destination for a day trip from the Netherlands — convenient, budget-friendly, and doesn't demand extensive planning in advance.

Day of travel and mode of transport

For the day of travel, I picked Saturday. It is the best option for me for a day trip to somewhere far away because then I could rest on Sunday and gear up for the upcoming week.

Also, I checked the weather forecast, because even though it's wishful thinking, I would prefer no, or very little rain on the trip haha. I was lucky as it did not rain that weekend, and it added that positive touch to the trip. Don't get me wrong, I love rain, but during winter, it's freezing, and then the best way I enjoy rain is by sipping tea while reading a book from the comforts of my couch.

For transport mode, there were two options - train or bus. The factors I consider are time of travel, direct connection, and comfort during travel. The first two were the same for both, train might have been a bit more comfortable. However, bus (flixbus) tickets were almost half of the train price for the date and time I preferred. So, I went ahead and booked bus tickets. The journey went smoothly — the bus was punctual and comfortable, making it a pleasant experience overall.

Itinerary

When planning the itinerary, I check multiple things - a thorough Google search for tourist attractions, explore Instagram pages dedicated to the destination, and watch suggestion videos for additional insights.

I always create a dedicated list on Google Maps and bookmark every place that looks interesting. Google reviews also help a lot with this process. I also take into account the bus/train stop in that city so that I can manage time well. And then when I am on the trip, I also let myself wander across any path that I find interesting. Sometimes, we find hidden gems just by exploring without the maps.

Usually, I travel solo, but this time I was traveling with a friend and that was such a lovely experience, we had loads of fun.

Exploring Ghent

Our first destination in Ghent was Saint Bavo's Cathedral. So we walked from the bus stop to the Cathedral, and we found a heritage area on the way - Saint Bavo's Abbey, it is always surreal passing by the ruins as it feels like time is still frozen over there. We went through the Herberg Macharius, and it had some impressive graffiti on the walls, adding a modern and artistic touch to the historical surroundings.

The Van Eyck brothers monument

As we walked further, we were impressed by the architecture. I felt like being transported to the past just walking by the canals. Then we came across this medieval-looking building just before the cathedral. And there stood a grand monument - The Van Eyck brothers which was quite intriguing. We also liked the stone sheep in a small children's playground beside that monument.

Saint Bavo's Cathedral

And, then came the Cathedral - impressive architecture, and rich, baroque interior. There was so much to explore, and also you could see the mystic lamb after paying for tickets.

Just few meters further, there is a monument dedicated to Jan Frans Willems, a Flemish writer.

Dutch Royal Theatre

A beautiful art theater, a few steps away from the cathedral, and what caught my attention was a quote on the windows of the theatre. It reads:

no soft smart fragile tender human tissue should ever be ripped apart because we differ

What a quote!!

Saint Nicholas' Church

Then we checked out the Belfry of Ghent building before moving forward to the Church - stunning exterior, and an even more stunning interior, with lots of art displays. The best thing was that we did not encounter crowds anywhere, so it was a very relaxed walk through this beautiful city.

Saint Michael's Bridge

Next was the time for a photo session, we came across Saint Michael's Bridge. We found that it is a famous photo spot and for a reason. The pictures turned out to be amazing, you can fit Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, Saint Nicholas’ Church, and the Belfry Tower all in one photo frame. We were very happy with the results haha.

Lunchtime

We were hungry by then, so we stopped for lunch at Royal India Restaurant. The food was tasty and they had a lovely Bollywood playlist, we were tuning along while enjoying the delicious Paneer Kadhai and Butter Naan.

Korenlei

Then we walked to Korenlei, and woww, what a scenic place. The birds flying near the canal and those beautiful buildings, made for another perfect photo spot. We loved this place and spent some time before proceeding to the castle via Hoofdbrug.

Hoofdbrug

Views from both sides of Hoofdbrug were beautiful, the castle with reflection in the water on one side of the bridge and the city views on the other side. Everywhere you turn around in this city, the scenes feel right out of a storybook. It feels like time stands still in the backdrop of water running through the canals.

Gravensteen castle

The Gravensteen castle itself is a magnificent, 10th-century preserved castle, where every step you take feels like walking through history. It also gave a bit of Game of Thrones vibes.

City center

We were a bit tired by this point, so we decided to rest a bit, and then we explored a few stores in the city center for shopping. My friend bought a jacket. We then enjoyed some coffee at a cafe. Before heading back to the bus stop, we couldn't resist grabbing some delicious fries, after all, we were in Belgium.

Return journey

We walked around 8 Kilometers and our feet were hurting by the end of the day. Thankfully the bus arrived a bit before time, so we got in and relaxed. The journey back to Amsterdam was seamless. We munched on Milka strawberry cheesecake chocolate, and I am mentioning this because it tastes so good that it is now my favorite Milka flavor. I even dozed off after Breda and woke up a few minutes before our stop. We reached well before time.

What an incredible start to 2024, I loved everything about this trip.

Conclusion

Ghent is a beautiful, picturesque city waiting for you to uncover its charms. It is a hidden gem, and I highly recommend adding this destination to your travel list. With its enchanting canals, majestic cathedral, historic castle, charming cobblestone streets, and scenic bridges, Ghent makes for a perfect day trip and a budget-friendly destination.

If you've had the chance to visit Ghent, I'd love to hear about your experience.

Since this is my first attempt at sharing my travel adventures, your feedback is invaluable. If there's any specific topic you'd like me to delve into further, please let me know as well.

Until next time, thank you, stay safe, and keep exploring the world!

Thank you 2023, onwards to 2024

Anuradha — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 13:56:04 +0000

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful start to the new year 2024. I postponed writing this article till after the 1st Jan as I did not feel in my writing zone last year at all, but I did want to write up a review as I did for 2022.

So 2023, well... here's to the year that 2023 has been 😇

Gratitude

If I were to define 2023 using just one word, it would be gratitude.

2023 was a different kind of year, like a pendulum with lots of highs and lows but it ended in a positive tone. Yes, I struggled and I felt like a loser at some point. But also, I fought back this feeling, I read books, talked to friends and family, and tried my best.

And while I felt like I did not accomplish much in 2023, now when I look back, I see lots of things that are wins for my priorities in life, and I feel grateful and proud of myself, as well as thankful for everyone who made my 2023 so beautiful.

2023 theme

So, I started 2023 with one theme - Going above and beyond.

I wanted like to explore more of my potential, see what I am capable of, and how far I can go while living life to its fullest.

Family and Friends

I went to India and met my family for the first time after I relocated to the Netherlands (after around 1.5 years). It was a lovely trip.

And, in the last quarter of the year, my family visited me in the Netherlands and we spent an amazing 2 months exploring the country as well as Europe at large.

These were the times that fueled me with positivity, courage, and a profound sense of fulfillment and gratitude.

Manifesting more of such times in 2024.

Also, I feel blessed to have such lovely and supportive friends, you all are just the best.

Health

This has been an ongoing challenge that I'm actively addressing. I must acknowledge my inconsistency with exercise, and I need to admit this as part of my accountability. I did try to pay more attention to the pattern of my health and understand it more closely.

I am grateful for the fact that I am more aware of my health triggers, and the side effects, and I am trying to take precautions as much as I can. As a result, I have felt better in the last two months.

In 2024, I am putting more focus on being healthy and being consistent.

Career

I changed my job in November and joined Vodafoneziggo, and this has been one of the major things I am grateful for in 2023. My priority was to work in an inclusive, positive work environment, where everyone is treated with respect and it checks all the right boxes.

Working with a focus on accessibility was also one of the important factors, and I am looking forward to exploring and contributing to that regard.

In 2024, I am looking forward to learning, growing, and working on challenging tasks in this new role.

Speaking at events

I slowed down a bit on in-person conferences in 2023 because of multiple reasons. And I wanted to go beyond conferences this year, so I went ahead to deliver workshops.

By the end of the year, I:

spoke at 12 conferences and events, including 6 in-person
delivered 3 online workshops on the O'Reilly platform

I am thankful for all these opportunities and experiences, for the new friends and connections I made as part of these events, and for all the things I learned from other talks at the conferences.

In 2024, I am looking forward to

more in-person conferences,
speaking at online events
continue with more workshops
publishing YouTube videos again

Travel

I wanted to travel more, and what a terrific year 2023 has been for traveling, specifically also because I traveled quite a lot with my family, and that feels like another level of happiness and accomplishment.

Some travel stats:

10 countries 🇳🇱🇩🇪🇧🇪🇮🇳🇫🇷🇨🇭🇦🇹🇨🇿🇧🇬🇬🇧
at least 35 cities (I am sure I am missing some while counting)

Top 3 highlights:

Visiting Trimbakeshwar and Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga temples and feeling that divinity deep within
looking at the Eiffel Tower for the first time with my parents by my side and wondering if it was for real or a dream
felt like a being in a fairy tale (Anna of my Frozen movie) standing in the valley surrounded by the snow-capped Alps in Lauterbrunnen

In 2024, more travel memories and stories (All my travel stories are shared on Instagram)

Reading

I was not consistent with reading books in 2023. By the end of the year, I read 19 books.

In 2024, I aim to be more consistent at reading. The number of books read does not matter much to me but I aim to read around 30 minutes for at least 5 days a week. For Goodreads, where I track my progress, I did put a target number of 30 books.

Writing

As I write this review, I am now seeing a pattern, there are certain months where I was not consistent with reading books, and those are the same months I was not consistent with journaling too, and it's a lost opportunity because I was struggling during some of those times, and it would have helped me recall more and better.

As a win, I did start journaling consistently towards the end of the year, and I also added a new habit to it - writing one thing I am grateful for every day.

In 2024, I am being more mindful about journaling every day and adding one thing I am grateful for each day (I would suggest you try this if you want).

In 2023, I did not publish any blogs, apart from the 2022 review one. I have 3 blogs in draft state. In 2024, I am going to focus again on writing.

Thank You 2023

I am grateful for the ways I kept showing up for myself, even if it felt hard at the moment.

I am grateful for everything that 2023 taught me, and for all the beautiful experiences I had.

I am grateful for the love and support I received, and the growth I experienced within myself.

I am grateful to have lived in 2023 ❤️.

Hello 2024

I am going through this new year slowly and steadily. The theme of this year will be: Healthy and Happy

Let's live 2024 to the fullest.

My biggest wish for this year is for a peaceful world. I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and fulfilling new year.

Also, I would love to read your year-end reviews or recaps, celebrate your 2023, and hype you up for 2024 and beyond. So do share with me in the comments.

Onwards!

2022 review and what's next in 2023

Anuradha — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:27:14 +0000

Hi everyone, how are you all celebrating the new year? As we say hello to the new year of 2023, I wrote my year-end review for 2022.

2022 Goals

Similar to 2021, I did not put any specific thing on my list, rather I went for a theme and for better focus on three areas.

Theme

The year 2022 was my year of saying No to self-deprecating thoughts, diminishing my caliber and my achievements, and doubting if I could do new things.

I did try to live by this, and I had to push myself at times to think positively and own my work.

There was a time when I felt too uncomfortable when I was appreciated, but now I have started to acknowledge my wins, and that's a big mental shift for me.

I still feel I hold myself back often, and I will continue working on this in 2023 as well.

Areas of focus

I focused mainly on three areas in my life:

Better Health
Live Life
Growth

Health

In 2022, working on improving my health was my number one priority. But I had a few low moments due to my health this year. It was a struggle for most of Jan and Feb and later during Oct and Nov. But two worst instances were when I got covid for the first time, it hit me hard, physically as well as mentally. I am so glad that I recovered from it. Another low was resurfacing of a health condition I thought I got rid of, and currently I am under treatment.

So the biggest focus in 2023 remains on my health, to be consistent in eating healthy and maintaining healthy habits.

Life and Growth

2022 was the year I felt what living life to the fullest could feel like. I pushed myself to explore new places, travel to different countries, learn new things, try new activities, and I feel amazed as I look back on my 2022 journey. I have grown personally, mentally as well as professionally. I have so much to share, I will go month-wise:

January

Got awarded as Microsoft MVP for developer technologies and it was a perfect new year gift
Gave a talk at UK & Ireland DevFest - I love speaking and sharing my experiences, and in 2022 I wanted to continue speaking at multiple conferences, so a great start to the year
Emceed at the GraphQL galaxy conference, this was also one of the goals to emcee at a few conferences, and I am on the right path

February

Explored Amsterdam for the first time, with my friend Gift (I came to the Netherlands at the end of September 2021, but due to covid and lockdown, I never went out to explore till now)
Also explored Haarlem, and went to Teyler's museum and it was a great experience. Walking alongside the canals was so beautiful, I can never get tired of the canals, they are magical
Spoke at 2 events - CityJS Conference, India, and GDSC (World Of Wonders)
Emceed 2 conferences - JSWorld conference and Node Congress. I realized that I really enjoy emceeing and it's super fun to chat with speakers while learning about a wide range of topics at the conference
Mentored as part of Women Developer Academy Europe mentorship program

March

Was mentor in RoadToGDE Class 3
Emceed at the DevOps JS conference
Visited 2 museums - Naturalis and Hortus Botanical in Leiden, it was lots of fun
Tried go-karting for the first time, but since I do not know a bit about driving, I injured myself, so I quit after one lap. I would never try this again until I have learned real car driving. I love to try new things, but with caution, and I do not feel ashamed to quit if needed.

April

So many firsts happened this month, and it has been one of the most happening months of 2022:

I witnessed snowfall for the first time ever, it was a beautiful amazing experience
and I felt as if it snowed to wish me luck for my first in-person international conference as a speaker, in front of more than 700 people later that day - at React Live conference
I traveled to London to give another talk - at the iJS London conference - and this was my first travel for speaking, such a feeling of accomplishment I must say
Also met my brother in London after around 2 years, and my uncle, aunt, and cousins, it was a nice visit
Explored London along with my brother, and we saw so many tourist places and ate some nice biryani.
Explored 5 cities in the Netherlands
Went up to a windmill museum in Leiden
Visited Zaanse Schans, it's such a beautiful place to visit, must go on my recommendation list
Explored Cobra museum and the beautiful Cherry Blossom park, it was an exhausting yet cool trip
Got sick at the end of April, it was pretty bad and ruined almost all of May
Still managed to deliver an online talk for the Jamstack Port Harcourt event

May

Most of the month went into recovery, it was a very difficult time for me, but I recovered.
Got accepted into the Women Techmakers Ambassador program
Got invited to and spoke at the Women of JAMStack podcast
Had a nice time with friends, explored another city and good Asian food places in Utrecht
Tried mini golf and arcade games for the first time, and enjoyed both

June

Spoke at the World Congress conference in Berlin, what an amazing experience, it remains the largest conference I spoke at in 2022, and I made so many friends and valuable connections
I explored a lot of Berlin, it is one of my favorite cities, quite a historical and emotional experience and I would always want to visit again. What moved me most - The memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the East gallery in Berlin
While attending the VueJs Amsterdam conference, I also interviewed some of the speakers for the JSWorld podcast, enjoyed it a lot
Attended React Summit conference, and met so many online friends for real
Overall, June was a wonderful month, it was all about people
Also played board games for the first time, it was fun

July

Spoke at Google I/O extended event by GDG Glasgow
Emceed at VueJS Forge conference first edition
Traveled to Bruges, Belgium - such a beautiful city
Traveled to Groningen, a city quite far and different from Amsterdam, I went to 3 museums there and learned a lot about slavery and the general history of the city and more
I was part of program committee for react India conference, an insightful experience

August

Explored 3 new cities of the Netherlands
Visited the Zuiderzee museum in Enkhuizen and it was such a fun trip - with a ferry ride to the museum, learning about that village's history and culture while playing the games
Gave a session at the LogRocket meetup event
Traveled to Scotland, had so much fun with my brother, and ate quite yummy Indian food
Was humbled to be invited again to emcee at the VueJS Forge conference's second edition
Had a memorable birthday celebration with Gift

September

Explored Netherlands along with my brother, lovely time spent
Spoke at 3 conferences and traveled to 2 new countries
Spoke at the Web Summer Camp conference in Croatia - another amazing conference, loved the food as well as the after-conference boat trip to the island of Krapanj while having lunch on the boat, a first-time experience, enjoyed it. Also got a cool plaque for being a speaker, damn one of the best gifts I got as a speaker
Spoke at JSConf Korea - the most accessible conference I ever attended, the organizing team is just amazing
Explored the beautiful city of Seoul, it's just wow, I was in awe the entire time
Gave my first conference workshop at React India

October

Got covid again, and had to cancel speaking at an amazing conference, it was a tough time, but thankfully, I recovered
Traveled to Milan to speak at the Codemotion conference, and also explored the beautiful city - my talk was rated the highest by the audience, and it is one of the biggest achievements of 2022 - it acknowledges my expertise and that what I talk about is important and the audience learns from it, and this acknowledgment makes me feel more confident in myself and challenges my imposter syndrome
Traveled to Munich to speak at the iJS Munich conference, it was special to me also because I spoke earlier in their London edition, and now in Munich - I felt nice about returning to the conference as a speaker
Mentored 3 women as part of the Women Developer Academy India mentorship program
Despite everything, mentally it was a pretty tough month for me

November

The month when I started regaining my confidence after feeling low for almost 2 months now

Traveled to Denmark to speak at the Boye conference Aarhus, it was a very different kind of conference and I got to meet many industry leaders in higher education
The Denmark visit was quite lovely personally too, I met a friend from India, and it was such a wonderful time with her
I also met Lars and his family, I felt like I was a kid again with his twin daughters, and tried some of the games which I definitely couldn't do even 10% as well as they were doing, we went to an aquarium and wildlife park and I saw so many aquatic animals for the first time
Emceed for TestJS Summit conference
As I traveled a lot this year, I wrote a blog post on Planning travels for conferences around the world
Went to the Eindhoven Glow festival, and felt dreamy walking under the butterflies
Played a VR zombie shooting game with colleagues and it was super fun
Probably one of the defining moments of this year - indoor sky diving in Utrecht with my colleagues - I have dreaded sky diving like anything, so it took a lot of courage to even decide to try it, but the moment I fell into that tunnel - I felt a different energy in me, and after those 3 minutes of sky diving experience in that tunnel, I felt like I got this new confidence and like I was a new person, and now I feel much less scared to try new things.

December

December ended the year on a high note for me

Got renewed as a Google Developers Expert for another year, so grateful and humbled
Traveled to Malaga to speak at the Wey Wey Web conference, the last conference for 2022, and it was such a wonderful, well-organized, and thoughtful conference.
Hiked to the top of the castle in Malaga, a mix of scaring and tiring experiences but totally worth it - loved the magnificent city view from the top of the castle
Visited 3 cities in the Netherlands, I am in love with this beautiful country
Experienced the Northern Lights show in Naturalis museum Leiden, watching them for real has been on my bucket list for the longest time, manifesting for it to happen soon
It's a holiday month, visited multiple Christmas markets, and explored the cuisines of different countries
Put up and decorated my first-ever Christmas tree, it was so much fun
Had such a wonderful time at the Amsterdam Winter Paradise event - went on so many rides for the first time, tried ice skating for the first time, and saw a live musical event for the first time - all in all, it was a day full of life, laughter, and love - the absolute best way to conclude the year

Some stats to revisit:

Spoke at 17 events including 9 in-person conferences
Emceed 6 conferences
Traveled to 9 countries
Created 7 videos on my YouTube channel
Wrote 2 blogs
Read 25 books
Mentored at 4 official programs - as part of Road To GDE, and Women Developer Academy Europe and India programs

As I reflect upon the year that 2022 has been, I feel proud of myself, my heart is filled with happiness, and I can say that yes, I tried to make the most of everything.

I am also very grateful that I got these opportunities and my workplace has always supported me.

And, I am grateful for meeting and making so many wonderful friends, you all are amazing, thank you for being there!

Hello, 2023 - what's next?

And now to welcome the new year, a blank book of 365 days that we have to fill with experiences.

I am so glad I maintained the habit of writing a journal (using notion), and so I could revisit most of my days in 2022 as I lived them yesterday. I will continue journaling more consistently in 2023
Focus the most on being healthy
Speak and attend more in-person conferences this year too, sharing my experiences, meeting old and new friends, and learning from fellow speakers.
Continue speaking at online events too.
I enjoyed emceeing a lot, and I would continue emceeing a few conferences, and I would really like to emcee some in-person conferences too
Continue traveling to new places, and exploring new things.
Give more workshops this year
I wrote only 2 blogs in 2022 and would focus on writing more this year
Create more videos for my YouTube channel
Continue reading more books

Three new things I would like to do this year

These terrify me currently, so I should try and get past my fear:

Learn Driving,
Parasailing,
Learn Swimming

Theme of 2023

And with that, Going above and beyond would be my theme for the year 2023.

I would like to explore more of my potential, see what I am capable of, and how far I can go while living life to its fullest.

A very happy and wonderful new year to everyone, I hope this year is the best year yet.

Share in comments your 2022 review or what are you looking forward to in 2023. Cheers!

Planning travels for conferences around the world

Anuradha — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 10:57:22 +0000

Traveling to new places, both near and far is a wonderful, life-enriching experience. We get to meet new people, learn about history, try local cuisines, experience new cultures, new languages, magnificent architecture, and so on.

My journey

As a person who did very little traveling for 30 years of her life, and then got to travel to so many new places in the next 1 year and counting, I have so much anxiety whenever I travel.

I started speaking at conferences a little before the pandemic in 2020, and then with everything going online in 2020, I saw a whole new world open up before me, and I was able to be part of many amazing conferences around the world as a speaker.

In 2022, when the world started opening up for offline events again, the first feeling I had was excitement - to be able to see new places, and meet new people in a completely different continent, so far away from my beloved homeland, India, where I had lived and worked for 30 years before I decided to stir up my whole life and career and relocate to the Netherlands.

But it came along with anxiety. In the last 7 months, I spoke at 7 in-person conferences and traveled to 6 different countries. It was smooth most of the time, except for when it wasn't. For my travel to Milan - where my direct flight from Amsterdam and Milan was not only preponed by KLM but also converted into a long journey with 3 flights and one more cancellation and delay in between. It was a pretty rough day for me, and I spent the first few hours in panic.

And, as I settled into the idea that it is going to go that way in any case, I tried to calm my mind by trying to journal a few things, and I ended up writing a rough sketch of how I plan for my travel to conferences or new places in general. Now that I am recovered from that wild adventure, it is time to write it in a more readable format. So here you go.

Planning journey for a conference

Choose journey dates

I prefer to reach the destination at least one day before the conference.

There are multiple reasons for it - getting to know the surroundings, and transportation, and avoiding last-minute travel route cancellations or delays by airlines or train companies.

Also, it allows me to relax at night and not worry about stuff before giving my talk the next day.

Choose the transport mode

When choosing between transport modes, I take the time of travel into consideration. For journeys that take up to 6 hours, I prefer the train, because I have experienced the same aggregate travel time when the flight time is less than 2 hours (special thanks to the Schipol mess, I need to be at the airport at least 3-4 hours before the flight time to have my mental peace). For any longer time, the flight is my preference.

Also, when using the train, I prefer first class for any journey more than 2-3 hours, as it is more comfortable when I have to do the journey sitting for around 6 hours and I can also work a bit.

For flights, economy class is what I travel in right now, and I have no complaints so far (Though someday I would like to try the business class and see the difference in terms of comfort and the level of tiredness I feel after every flight).

Prefer direct Flights

For flights, I always always always want to travel with direct flights. Layovers add to my anxiety, and I saw it go through roof for my Milan trip. I would not like to go through that again. But I know, it will not always be possible. In those cases, I would at least try to keep around 2 hours of layover time to account for some unforeseeable flight delays. Although it will not always be perfect, trying to plan it better is all I can do.

Choosing seats

Window seats are my choice of seat. I love to look at the world from that height and appreciate all the beauty, as well as love the feeling of flying through the clouds, witnessing sunrise and sunset from a different perspective. Those are magical moments.

Also, I like to click lots of pics, and no, I am not ashamed of that... I also recently created my instagram just so I can share all those pics.

Do what you love folks and do not worry about any judgment. We only live once.

Travel Insurance

Get travel insurance, so that in any unforeseen situations, some/full part of the ticket could be reimbursed. Some insurances also provide medical emergency cover and well as cover for luggage theft too.

Accommodation

Conference-sponsored accommodation

When you are traveling to speak at a conference, the conference will provide you with a hotel. So this part is mostly taken care of by them.

I prefer at least 2-night accommodation because

I fly one day before the conference, and
I would not prefer to rush out of the conference after my talk to catch the flight.

There are multiple aspects of attending a conference, and one of the most important aspect is the people - the attendees, the fellow speakers, the organizers, sponsors, volunteers, and so on.

I enjoy meeting and talking to people who attended my session, because that's when you also know if they liked it, and what else would they like to learn about, which could be an idea for a potential new session or an addition/update to the existing one. I also like to attend other sessions at the conference and learn from what my fellow speakers have to share.

Apart from that, the speakers’ room is where lots of cool conversations happen, meeting those amazing speakers, knowing about their journey, and also talking to volunteers and the sponsor team is the way to make new friends and connections.

And then one of the best feelings is to meet them again at future conferences.

Travel checklist

You would not want to leave any crucial document behind and forget stuff that could make life a bit tougher in an unknown city or country. So I maintain a to-pack list for my travels.

Sharing the most important part of that list with you all, maybe you can find some inspiration or reference in these:

The 'cannot leave behind' items

Mobile and Laptop

I mean, mobile is kind of a lifeline these days, so definitely do not forget your mobile at home.

Also, a laptop, because that is what I would use to give my presentation at the conference. Although, always keep an online version of the slides, so that in unforeseen circumstances, if we have to use some other laptop, we can still access the materials for the talk.

Documents

Documents are one of the most important items, we always need to have our ID with us, when we are traveling to another country. As an ex-pat in the Netherlands, I need to carry my passport and Resident permit with me everywhere. The document requirement might be different for you, but it is always useful to have a small bag/purse specifically for storing the IDs'.

Also, always keep the ticket or boarding pass with you, either digitally or in a physical copy. I prefer a digital copy in the app, but also I download the document and keep it in my online drive, as a backup so I can access it from anywhere. It's always good to have a backup option for documents.

Debit / Credit cards

Always check if you have your cards on you before leaving for the trip. Also, I prefer to have some expense limits on the card, so that anyone with unauthorized access to the card cannot spend a considerable amount of money.

Cash

I know almost everything is digital nowadays. Still, I prefer to keep some amount of cash with me, just in case. Also, I have been to places where I had to use cash because I couldn't use the app to book a cab for me due to internet connectivity issues and the local taxi only accepted cash. Rarely do I want to withdraw cash in an unknown place. I know I sound extra cautious, but my motto in life is "better safe than sorry".

Whenever I step out of my house, the 3-point check I do unconsciously are -

Mobile and laptop
Documents
Card

Everything else can be manageable, but without these three, most probably the travel would be disrupted.

Other important items to pack

Medicines

General painkillers and paracetamol are the medicines I always have in all of my backpacks. Apart from that, I also have certain health conditions, so I need to have prescribed medicines with me all the time.

Chargers for mobile and laptop

Also, a power bank, if possible - so that you don't have to find a charging point everywhere. I cannot imagine myself traveling anywhere without power banks. I usually only need to use it once in a whole day, and that too when I take lots of pics. Still, when I have it with me, I have peace of mind and I do not need to search for any charging point anywhere.

Travel adapter

In case the charging plug is different for the country you are traveling to, these will come in quite handy.

Earphones/headphones

I prefer earphones in flight as they also act as kind of earplugs, while I play some nice songs to calm myself during the take-offs.

Neck pillow

For longer journeys, these are the saviors. When I went to South Korea, my flight was 13 hours. I had my pillow with me and actually, I ended up sleeping for a good time due to that, and hence I felt less tired than I expected to be.

One pair of clothes in the laptop bag

Just in case of emergency, what if the other cabin bag gets misplaced?

Snacks

I always carry a packet of dry fruits and cookies with me, which I rarely end up eating, but a few times they have been my savior, as I munch on them while searching for a good restaurant in the new city.

Also, I am terrible with directions, so very often I catch the wrong train or bus and so I always prepare extra to cope with my adventures of getting lost in a new city, I would not like to do that on a hungry stomach.

Books or movies for entertainment

I keep a few online books and I utilize airport wait time as well as air time to read them. Sometimes, I do not feel like reading, so I always have some offline downloaded movies on my amazon prime app, and I watch them. My go-to movies are the LOTR series (LOTR fans, say hi).

Conclusion

Traveling is a wonderful experience, and planning it in an organized way can make it so much better.

I hope you found my travel planning ways useful. I am curious to learn what are some of your methods to plan the trip.

Also, share with me any tips and tricks about travel planning and habits, I would love to hear them all.

Till then, let's keep on traveling and exploring the world, one city at a time!

Nevertheless, Anuradha Coded!

Anuradha — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 10:40:09 +0000

Happy International women's day

I have been coding

since 8.5 years now, and I am going on strong.

It has been a terrific journey so far - from being born in a remote area of India where no one even thought girls could dream, to being the first kid of my village to go to a proper school, first of my generation to do engineering and become a software engineer.

Yes, not the first girl but the first one, paving the way for everyone else.

My recent achievements

being recognized as a Google developers Expert and Microsoft MVP
Speaking at amazing events like DevFest India, NextJS conf, React India conf, Devfest UKI, Google I/O Extended, GDSC WOW, CityJS and many more...
mentoring at Women Developers Academy, Europe and Road to GDG programs
Creating content on my YouTube channel for web accessibility and career guidance

Throughout my career as a women in tech, I have been fighting and try to overcome

imposter syndrome
being passed on over promotions and other opportunities
my voice and my opinions discarded as not important
inappropriate gender-based judgements
demotivation
lower pay

Advocating for myself looks like

speaking up for myself, voicing my concerns
not settling for less

I pledge to support women, non-binary folks, and other minorities in tech by

To guide and help them realize and reach their potential
Motivate and create way for all who come after me
Support and amplify our voices

This journey has not been easy, but totally worth it

A lot barriers I broke, challenges I overcame and milestones I am proud of.

And I did not do that alone, I had my allies supporting me at each step: my parents, my brothers and few incredible friends all along the way.

I would like to thank

everyone who supports, guides and motivates the women, non-binary and the underrepresented people. You are making a difference, a positive impact and you should know that you are appreciated.

I would like to applaud each and every women

We are facing barriers and climbing mountains that might be invisible to many others, and we keep on fighting, keep on winning, and keep on moving forward.

Shine on

Once again,

Happy International women's day to all of us 👸

We are the Queens: strong, compassionate, beautiful, ambitious and everything that we want to be.

Let's own our crown and shine on ✨

2021 reflections and what's next in 2022

Anuradha — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 23:12:24 +0000

Hi everyone, today is the last day of year 2021 and I wanted to do a year end review and also share my plans for the next year with you all.

2021 plans and goals

Amidst all the chaos of pandemic that 2020 brought upon us, I did not plan extensively for 2021 but instead I focused on a theme.

I wanted the year of 2021 to be my year of YES.

I decided to not hesitate when new opportunities come up and go for exploring new things in life.

There were three high-level things which I wrote to focus on 1st January 2021 in my journal, they were:

Health
Career
Growth

Health

In 2021

I had multiple health issues and I wanted to focus on improving it.

What did I do about it?

I did meditation, walking and kept my diet in check for most of the days. And also took consultation from a Doctor whose medication turned out to be effective for me.

As of today my health conditions have improved by around 70% and it is a huge win for me.

For 2022

My first and most important goal again is to focus on my health.

Everything else is secondary.

Career

In 2021

I wanted to take my career to next level and get a relocation job.

I started my job search in Jan 2021, accepted the job offer for my current company in April and then moved to Netherlands in end of September.

This was not an easy decision for me.

I was pretty anxious and scared, this was a huge step for my life and I was pushing myself way out of my comfort zone.

But today I can say proudly that I'm glad that I took this decision and did not step back due to the fear of unknown.

I just tried to live by my theme of saying yes to every opportunity that I felt could be a good step for me instead of doubting myself.

For 2022

I plan to take my career to even more heights by exploring new technologies and working towards being a better developer and developer advocate.

I specifically want to explore more and more about accessibility and continue sharing my learnings and spread more awareness about it in the tech community.

Growth

The third focus for me was on growth - in whatever I was already doing.

In 2021

I wanted to do more conferences and grow my technical expertise.

Speaking in events

I aimed to participate in at least one event per month and I ended up speaking at 20 events in 2021.

Among these were two workshops for college students where I taught web development and React JS.

I also spoke at JS World conference which was attended by around 50,000 people and it is the biggest conference I have ever been part of till now.

I also got the chance to speak at some amazing events like Google I/O extended UK and Ireland event, at DevFest India, Next JS conference and React India conference.

MCing at conferences

I also wanted to try hosting an event and I got an opportunity to MC at the GraphQL Galaxy conference in December 2021.

For 2022

I absolutely loved being Master of Ceremonies and for 2022, I would like to MC for more events.

For speaking apsirations, in 2022, my goal is to deliver talks in few in-person conferences (of course only if the travelling is safe).

I would like to meet more people in tech in person and I also want to try giving a keynote talk at a conference.

Wins in 2021

GDE and MDE

Among my most favourite wins of 2021 is that I became a Google Developers Expert for Web technologies and also a Cloudinary Media Developer Expert.

These titles definitely boost my confidence and motivate me to contribute more and more towards helping the developer community.

Started YouTube Channel

And last but not the least, I wanted to start my YouTube channel but I procrastinated for almost 11 months out of 12 months in 2021 before actually starting my YouTube channel on 29 November 2021.

I have posted three videos on my channel till now and in 2022 my plan is to create a lot more content on YouTube channel.

Reading books

I also did a lot of reading in 2021. I started with a goal of reading 15 books and I ended up reading 21 books in 2021.

Now for 2022 I want to make a reading a daily habit, even if it's just for 30 minutes daily but I would like to start my day with reading a book.

And my goal for 2022 is reading at least 25 books.

Journaling

In 2021, one of the best things I did was to journal daily.

So I have my whole 2021 written out at a high level in my journal and due to this I was able to reflect throughout my days in the year.

I like to go back to it and re-read on the days I am feeling low and I try to remind myself that it's okay I'm doing good and that i do not need to push myself a lot.

I have prompts written in my journal to take rest, breathe and just pause for some time.

This was very effective for me, and I would continue this journaling habit in 2022 as well.

People and connections

I met some wonderful people from different parts of the world, and made new friends ❤️.

So these were my reflections for year 2021 - on what were my goals and wins and also what I plan to do in 2022 on a very high level.

Now I would also like to take some moments to share what did not went well and what learnings I have to take from 2021 into the New Year 2022.

What did not went well in 2021

A few things which did not work for me were:

despite not having a good health, I was still not able to meditate and exercise consistently and hence I had some really tough days both physically and mentally.
I wanted to write more technical blogs but I was not able to contribute much via the writing medium.
I had so many plans for my YouTube channel, but they are yet to be executed.
I struggled with the sudden drop in the temperature when I moved from India to Netherlands. It was pretty harsh encounter and I had a tough time adapting to the new climate. Also, some of the experiences would have gone smoother if I had planned better. But it's all good now.

Inconsistency

I see inconsistency in my habits and due to this I have seen some of my plans drop and also I have procrastinated and started something is very late.

What are my learnings/ takeaways from these?

I'm trying currently to meditate daily and go out for walks and runs at least three times a week because I want to be in good health.

I'm also trying to plan out my days and weeks so that I stay consistent and do not procrastinate on what I want to do.

Theme for 2022

I would also like to share with you my theme for the year 2022.

And it will be the year of saying NO.

What do I want to say no to?

I want to say no to devaluing myself. I often play myself down, and my achievements, and it diminishes my confidence. I just don't want to do that anymore.
I also want to say no to the self-deprecating thoughts which always holds me back from doing something new.
I also want to say no to apologising for dreaming big and going all in on whatever I want to achieve.
I often feel that I am not doing good enough and in 2022, I want to say no to this feeling of not feeling competent enough.
And I want to say no to anything and everything that can have a negative impact on my physical and mental well being.

Towards a better year

So, these were some of my reflections of the year that 2021 was and what goals I have in mind for the year 2022.

Do let me know in comments what are some of the goals and plans that you have made for year 2022.

I pray for the pandemic to end this year. Let’s welcome the new year with hope of good health, blessings and happiness for everyone.

Happy New Year! Take care, stay safe and healthy!

Nevertheless, Anuradha Coded!

Anuradha — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 16:51:33 +0000

Happy International women's day to all the ladies out there. This is the first time I am participating in #shecoded. Loving this initiative by dev.to, I am joining this, and you can too :)

My most recent achievement is…

I got selected to be part of the Media Developer Experts program by Cloudinary 😇
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This is the first of its kind international recognition I got and it has boosted my confidence to do more for the community ✌

My biggest goal is…

to use my learnings and knowledge to help people, and help create a better world 💖

I have been working on creating an educational website to spread awareness around web accessibility, called explore a11y.

As an ally to disabled people, I also participated in the #AccessibleAdvent 2020. There were so many informative tweets that I ended up creating a website dedicated to the #AccessibleAdvent 2020 event because I did not want that gold mine to ever fade away.

It is called Accessible Advent 2020 - Learn, Adopt, Advocate and is dedicated to raising awareness around accessibility and hoping that 2021 be the year when accessibility would be an integral part and not just an afterthought for any decision.

My advice for allies to support underrepresented folks who code is...

be kind, listen and support 🤗
learn about subconscious biases 🙏
help create safe and positive environments for us 🙌
amplify our voices and efforts 🤝

Happy women's day

You all are amazing, unique, brave, kind, and everything you want to be 💖

Shine on, own the crown 👑

Thanks to all the women who paved the way for us, so that we can be what we are today. Let's now fulfill our responsibility and help everyone grow and achieve their dreams... towards a brighter and better future 👐

Accessible Advent - learn, adopt, advocate

Anuradha — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 13:30:52 +0000

Tl;dr
Follow the #AccessibleAdvent hashtag on Twitter and learn from the disabled people and the activists about how to ensure access.
You can also read the content at accessible advent website.

Introduction

December 2020 saw several advent calendars being published around by the community. My most favorite one is the Accessible Advent. It is a positive and creative campaign started by @GinnyAndT to raise awareness around disability access.

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As part of this, Every day in December, people are posting one thing that would make life more accessible for them.

This hashtag belongs to the whole disabled and chronic illness community!

Learn from the content

The tweets have been eye-opening and should be considered as learning material by everyone in order to work together and make a more inclusive world.

Learn how ableism affects the daily lives of the disabled and chronically ill people.
Access needs are different for everyone. The key is to be flexible and keep trying to improve the accessibility for everyone
Don't judge by what you see. Many disabilities and symptoms (such as pain) are invisible, but that does not lessen the impact they have on the person.
There are lots of things which we can do, efforts we can make in a transformative way, to normalize the disabilities and ensure fair treatment to everyone.

Adopt the learnings and convert them into results

The products, services, and environments are all built by people, so we have the power to build it better and build it for everyone.

As Mik highlights, we need to change the mindset and adopt a "why not? attitude rather than always asking "why?"

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Go through all the tweets, recognize the problems, and implement the solutions.

If you find it difficult to scroll through the tweets and keep up with the content, I have created a website dedicated to #AccessibleAdvent 2020.
It contains all the tweets listed down along with a day and user filters for a good reading experience.

Presenting to you - accessible advent 2020 website.

My aim to create this website to keep the content always easily available to people.

Advocate

Learning is a continuous process. We have to keep learning and adopting the correct measures to ensure inclusive solutions for everyone.

Also, we have to share them with the world, so that more and more people join hands to work together for the cause.

Be the ally to the disabled community, advocate for the cause.

This advent calls us to listen to what disabled people have to say and help amplify their voice, help make a better experience for them.

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You can send this website's link to people, businesses, and foundations who you think should

learn more about the current state of accessibility
should work towards building accessible solutions
could help amplify the voice and concerns listed

Or, in a nutshell, share this website with everyone.

What to do next

Read the tweets, understand the issues, start addressing those issues, advocate.

Let's reflect on how we can enrich society through accessibility.

Tweet about it and spread the word.

Conclusion

There are so many ways in which we can make our world much more accessible and inclusive for everyone. let's act now.

Build in access by standard, not as an afterthought!

Onwards to a more accessible world!!

Credits: Twitter for the data, @GinnyAndT for starting this initiative for year 2020, and every Twitter user who posted for hashtag #AccessibleAdvent.

Note: This article was originally published on my website

How I got started with Accessibility?

Anuradha — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 20:36:36 +0000

This post was originally published on my personal website.

Before we start, I would like to put out a disclaimer:

This article is a summary of my encounter with web accessibility and how I reacted to it. This does not cover any technical aspects of a11y.
I will be posting a series of articles focused on the intricacies of web accessibility.

Ok, let's get started.

Introduction

Almost a year ago, I was completely ignorant of accessibility. I was a normal web developer, obsessed with JavaScript and fangirling over ReactJs as I was creating a scalable and responsive web application for an online-only bank.

Then one fine day I came across an event being held to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).

As per definition by wikipedia -

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an awareness day focusing on digital access and inclusion for the more than one billion people with disabilities and impairments. It is marked annually on the third Thursday of May.

Being the curious learner that I am, I enrolled in the webinar. It was a nice introduction to accessibility and it compelled me to think about it.

My journey to explore further

As I started exploring accessibility on my own, I felt guilty of contributing to the inaccessible web in one way or the other in the past.

Although unintentional, still being unaware of accessibility made me the culprit of writing inaccessible code.

The more I discussed it with friends and colleagues, the more I realized that accessibility has a reputation for being complex, confusing, and burdensome.

Further exploration of the rules and guidelines for accessibility (a11y) had me figured that there is a thick air of misconception between accessibility and the developers in general and that this can be cleared off only when we talk about it and practice it first hand.

What I wanted to do about it?

I took a rather big step when I reached out to a local meetup organizer proposing to give a talk on Introduction to accessibility. I wanted to do my part and help spread awareness about accessibility.

As my talk proposal got accepted, nervousness kicked in and I had my doubts on how it will be received.

As I planned to cover the introductory information around accessibility, I was susceptible that the audience might already know those things.
But anyway, I mustered all the courage and proceeded with the content.

To my pleasant surprise, the presentation was received well by the audience and they were quite curious and sincere in learning more about it.

Feedback I received

After the talk, I had very good conversations with some of the attendees on certain aspects of accessibility.

The most common feedback was that people weren't really much aware of the topic and it really helped them gain good informative around it.
Even if they did know about accessibility, they did not think much about it because it was rarely practiced in their projects.

This really sums up the current situation of web development.

Current state of web accessibility

There are some folks who are putting their heart and soul into creating accessible solutions and applications.
They are promoting web inclusiveness and initiating quality conversations around it on social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

And we are still getting just started. There remain lots to do, and lots of commitment is required.

Conclusion

Accessibility is an inherent aspect of the web, and it will remain accessible only if we make efforts for it.

From the business and product team to designers, developers, and testers, we all need to work together, make ourselves aware and educated about accessibility.

It is the responsibility of each one of us, together we can make the web a lot more accessible.

My Pledge

I have pledged to make active efforts and contribute towards creating a more accessible and inclusive web. I will keep on writing about it, discussing and teaching about it.

But I cannot do that without you. Will you help me in achieving it?

How do you manage the accessibility of your website or application? Let me know your take and thoughts in the comments.

Happy learning. Take care 🙌

Not sure if you should write that blog— Begin anyways

Anuradha — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 12:15:12 +0000

Have you been procrastinating just because you do not feel confident enough?

If yes, then this post is for you. I am here to tell you, to motivate you, to push you to get started anyways. Do not bother about the results, just go for it.

Getting started

Getting started is the hardest part, it often feels intimidating and challenging.

Trust me, almost every writer once faced such doubts. But it did not stop them from publishing their thoughts, their experiences, their knowledge. And it should not stop you too.

Start small and be consistent. You do not need to have a perfect or unique topic to start your blog. Pick a topic you are comfortable with and list down all the points you want to share on that topic. It doesn't have to be even full sentences in the first try. Write down whatever comes to your mind, whatever you know about the topic. And then reiterate. Re-read the points, try to create sentences out of those points, try to relate it in a sequential manner. Re-edit and re-read it. How do you feel? You can ask your friends and family to proofread it for you and work on feedback if you resonate with it.

After a few iterations, you should just publish it. Overthinking about the content will only lead to more anxiety and lesser confidence to publish it. I do that, when I feel I am re-reading it too many times when it already looks readable, I just go ahead and hit the Publish button.

Is the content simple?

If you think the content is simple, I think that is a positive point. Because different people around the world are going to read it, and it must be clear and simple to be understandable for a broad audience.

I personally ask my brother (who has no background of the topics which I write) to review my beginner-friendly articles before publishing. This is because I want to understand how it will sound to the reader who might have no previous background of the topic, or who are just getting started with it.

Now, your topic might be for a selective audience, or for experienced people. In that case, you can choose someone compatible to the potential audiences to review it for you. That is a personal choice with so many options around it, choose what makes you more confident about publishing that article.

My motivation

My motivation to start writing my first ever technical article was a tech talk I signed up to deliver. I was very nervous and was quite confused about what to cover in the talk. So I started listing down topics and explanations with examples which turned out into a 4 part article on the topic — Unit testing React and Redux. You can find the series here if interested. I still refer to it when I need to check on some points.

Remember writing articles is a two-way learning process. It benefits the readers and it also benefits the writer. When you are writing something to share, you research it and create examples to showcase. When you write a lot, you read a lot, you explore new concepts, and hence your understanding of that topic enhance and it increases your confidence and expertise.

This is true for all kinds of articles. What makes you feel motivated? How do you maintain your positive vibes? How did you get started with the job that you are doing? How did you prepare for that exam or that interview? What made you keep moving even when you thought of giving up?

Topics are all around us, each of our lives and life experience is unique in their own beautiful way. You just have to find what you want to talk about and then go share it with the world if you want.

For example, this article is my first one dedicated to motivation. And a week ago I could never have thought about writing such a thing. But then, a friend called me for suggestions on how to get started to write. She shared that she had some topic in mind for a long time but never felt motivated enough to start writing. We had a long chat with a positive outcome in end (She said yes to start writing the article). It felt so good. Before that, I never really thought about the impact of my articles.

Hence, this came as a huge motivation to me and I thought of writing an article on this.

There might be many other people struggling with the same situation, what if this article reaches them and can motivate them to start writing. If even one person gets motivated after reading this, it’s a huge win for me.

The world is ready to welcome you, so what are you waiting for?

Advantages of writing articles:

It helps the writer attain a deeper knowledge of that topic which benefits them directly.
It helps readers who were interested in that topic or who were facing the same issue which you explained how to fix or overcome in the article.
It gives us a sense of giving back to the community and feeling of belongingness and satisfaction.
It also builds your brand and can help significantly in your career.
It gives you a broader reach, the world is the limit (unless we discover extraterrestrial life, then we might have even broader reach😜)
You might meet like-minded people, and have a rich discussion on the topics you love. Make friends and relations for life.
You might get opportunities to grow and also get financial benefits. What if you are the author of that next-selling book? You don't know it until you explore it.
You never know who you might be motivating and empowering through your articles.

Conclusion

How many times a day we google for issues we encounter? Well, I search pretty frequently and I read a lot of blogs. Now imagine if those blogs would never be published just because the author did not feel it was worth it. How would you have solved that issue, or how would you have learned about that concept then.

Consider this as the trigger point. Everyone has a different perception and a different way of explaining. What if your article is THE ONE that helps the reader?

Someone somewhere would be thankful for the article you wrote, even if you do not know about it yet. So start writing already.

Stay safe and keep on learning and sharing 🙌
Tell me in comments what was your inspiration to start writing and what keeps you motivated.

This post was originally posted on Medium.
Link to Medium post