Started the year with a lot of goals and aspirations in all aspects of life, including spiritual, career, and financial. It was a promising kick-off since the 2024 race had begun.
I had promised my boss, who is more like a brother, that I would help him complete his software product. On January 3rd, I left Ibadan and traveled to Ile Ife to join him in developing the software. My plan was to finish the software project and then focus on creating tech content, which I believed was a profitable path in tech and a quick way to gain recognition as a developer. I started working for my boss on January 8th, 2024. With just the two of us on the project, we managed both backend and frontend programming simultaneously. Our goal was to ship the first version of the software by the first week of February, as my boss was running out of funds and urgently needed to get our first subscribers.
Working on the project was a significant learning experience for me. I developed a deep affection for it because it allowed me to explore advanced features of Node.js. The work continued day and night, and eventually, we needed to start designing frontend pages. Up until then, our frontend work had primarily been about sending important requests to the backend and receiving responses. Designing beautiful frontend pages became a pressing need. My boss, being more of a backend developer, was not very accustomed to coding frontend designs. He had a habit of sourcing ready-made designs and customizing them to meet his needs. For our project, he found all the pages from a website with a similar implementation and handed them to me to integrate into a React application.
As I began integrating these designs, I encountered a problem but was reluctant to inform him. I decided to code the pages from scratch instead of fixing the pre-made designs. That’s where the problem began. After handing me the pages, my boss left for home to focus on resolving a backend issue—a part of the code was consuming too much memory, and the remote server we planned to deploy on had only 2GB of RAM. He worked on this issue for a week before finding a solution and returning to the office.
When he returned, he asked about the progress of the frontend designs. I told him I had completed only the landing page. He was upset, feeling I had been lazy since all I had to do was adapt the pre-made designs. However, I felt I had done a lot of work because I had written the designs from scratch. These designs were complex, and implementing them manually required significant effort. After explaining that I had encountered issues with the provided designs and opted to code them myself, we reviewed the problem together. We discovered that the pre-made designs indeed had issues and wouldn’t work as intended. My boss decided we should manually get the designs, and this time, everything worked out fine.
On Wednesday, January 31st, 2024, I didn't follow my boss's instructions, and as a result, he decided I should stop working on his project. I apologized, but it was too late. It was a difficult experience because I was attached to the project. Despite my regret, I had to stop working on it. While I was no longer involved, I started thinking about my next steps. I remembered that I needed to write some technical articles for my DEV.to account as part of my goals. I quickly got into it, and it turned out to be a fascinating experience. I realized I had developed a passion for explaining concepts. One of the topics I wrote about was Big O notation, a fundamental concept in data structures and algorithms, which got a lot of likes because my article was very detailed and clear.
After publishing the article, I found Ile Ife boring and decided to return to Ibadan, even though the electricity there is unreliable. After two days of doing nothing at home, I went to the University of Ibadan to use their electricity so I could work on my laptop and update my LinkedIn profile and portfolios. While there, my former roommate, now a master's student, asked for help with a software project. Once I finished updating my profiles, I started working on his project. I became very involved and worked on it all day until late at night. Realizing it was too late to go home, I called a friend of my boss, who was also a master's student at the University of Ibadan, to ask if I could stay over. He agreed, and his roommate picked me up, allowing me to spend the night there.
I woke up early and returned to the Student Union Building to continue working on the project. I coded all day and accepted my former roommate's offer to stay in his room since he had an empty bed. With no electricity at home, it was a better option. Using his laptop, which had a better battery life and more RAM, made my work faster and more enjoyable. I considered upgrading my own laptop's RAM. After making significant progress on the project over three days, I decided to take a break and go home, promising to return
On my way home, I considered upgrading my laptop's RAM and decided to find a side job. I applied to one of the best schools nearby and was invited to take a test the following week. After the test, I was called for an interview, and by the end of February, I was told to start working in the first week of March. The school closed at 3:30 PM, but the principal often stayed late to handle administrative tasks. The school library was my favourite place to code without distractions. I took this chance to stay a bit longer to code. I really enjoyed this experience because I was working on a personal project that I believed could make a big difference.
By April, I received my salary and bought the additional RAM. I also finished the personal project I was working on, and everything was running smoothly. However, I wanted to add an extra feature that I couldn't manage directly. I decided to use an API for this, but I soon discovered that the API I was using wasn't reliable. I began researching better APIs while still visiting the school during the three-week holiday in April. Eventually, I found another API that could add the feature. Unfortunately, when I tried to integrate it into my application, it didn't work as expected.
While dealing with this issue, I got a call from a friend asking if I could recommend someone for a small frontend project. I said I could do it. My friend connected me with the project owner, and we discussed the details. He sent me the Figma prototype, which included animated pages. We agreed on the price and estimated it would take two weeks to complete. Two days before the deadline, I hosted it for the client to review. Aside from a few minor corrections, everything was complete, and I delivered the final project on time. Additionally, I received an email from a company that had been following my technical content on DEV.to. They wanted me to work as a Technical Content Creator for them. I seriously considered the offer because it was an opportunity abroad. However, I had a strange feeling about it, so I decided to decline the offer.
With the payment from the front-end project, I felt a strong urge to use the money differently than I had planned. I trusted my instincts and spent it in a way that brought me fulfillment. Meanwhile, I continued working at the school and coding on my laptop every day, which I found engaging and fulfilling. By June, during our mid-term break at school, I decided to go to the University of Ibadan (UI) to access electricity since no one would be at school. I was completely focused on reaching my financial goal for the first half of the year. I worked tirelessly, spending three days straight glued to my laptop, persistently applying for opportunities on various freelance platforms.
On Saturday evening, I left UI and went home to prepare for church the next day, which was also Sallah. On Sunday afternoon, after returning from church, I decided to check my LinkedIn account. To my surprise, I found a gig opportunity that could help me reach my financial goal for the first half of the year. Excited, I applied via email and received a response. The hiring team scheduled an interview for the next day. The following day, I completed the interview, and the interviewer informed me that I had been shortlisted for the final round. I was set to meet with the CEO on Friday. He also advised me to prepare thoroughly for cloud computing questions, focusing on AWS. I felt somewhat confident, as I had previously worked with some AWS services, though I wasn’t deeply experienced.
On Friday, the day of the interview, I met the CEO, a Nigerian living in Germany. The conversation started well. His first question was about deploying an application to AWS EC2. I couldn’t answer because I only had experience with AWS Lambda. He moved on to the next question, which I answered correctly. However, I took a long time to respond to the third question, and the CEO mistakenly accused me of looking up the answer during the interview. He decided to end the interview, saying he couldn't offer me the gig. I was devastated. Missing out on that gig meant I couldn't reach my financial goal for the first half of the year. It was a tough and disappointing experience, one of the low points of my journey.
I learned a lot from my past mistakes and promised myself to do better next time. In August, I received a message from the same person who had introduced me to the Nigerian CEO in Germany, whose interview I didn't pass. This time, he wanted me to create something amazing. However, the amount he offered was quite low. When I mentioned this, he explained that it was just an internship. Since I wanted to explore reverse engineering some apps with features similar to what he wanted, I decided to take on the project. I discovered some interesting hacks related to the project and jumped right in. To focus fully on the project, I resigned from my teaching job in September, as I'm not good at multitasking. Plus, the project was very demanding.
Focusing only on this project turned out to be a big mistake. I later realized the client didn't have a clear idea of what he wanted. I was both the software architect and the tech lead. I carefully planned the algorithms and solutions, but he often suggested other non-technical approaches. I explained that I had considered the trade-offs carefully, but he often prioritized speed over building robust applications. It was frustrating, but I kept going. In mid-October, the national power grid collapsed, and I urgently needed to finish a part of the web app to show a progress report by Friday. To get electricity, I went to the University of Ibadan (UI), where they had power. I worked hard through the night, and around 5:30 AM, I decided to take a short break while my phone was charging in front of me. Feeling comfortable, I rested my head for a moment. Unfortunately, I fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke up around 6:15 AM, I discovered that my phone had been stolen. Those 45 minutes felt like the most distressing moments of my life. Panicking, I tried everything to locate the phone, knowing it was probably still on campus. I rushed downstairs to ask someone to call my phone. It rang, but no one answered. After persistent dialing, a man finally picked up and claimed he would return the phone but said he was far away. I immediately knew he was lying—this is a common excuse thieves use. At that moment, I began to worry about my SIM card being misused for fraudulent or dangerous activities. I quickly visited my network provider’s office to retrieve my line. I completed the SIM replacement almost immediately and resorted to using an old, abandoned smartphone I found at home. This unpleasant experience marked the end of my habit of moving around in search of electricity. The project’s progress slowed significantly after that incident. By the end of the month, I wasn’t paid a full salary and was informed that the work would be halted due to a lack of funding from investors.
In November, I decided it was time to go for NYSC, something I had been avoiding because I felt it was a waste of time. While waiting for NYSC registration to begin, I took up a tutorial job introduced to me by my sister's friend in my neighborhood. I thought it would be a good way to earn some cash. The job turned out to be quite enjoyable, and I liked the flexibility of the per-hour arrangement, as it gave me the freedom to focus on other activities.
While working at the tutorial, I was discussing my intended NYSC posting with my sister's friend at the tutorial center. He advised me to reconsider my choice of location, saying that serving in that part of the country might not be worth it. Curious, I turned to Google for research and reached out to people who had done their service there. Their opinions were unanimous—they all discouraged serving in that area. After careful thought, I decided to pick the state where I already lived. It felt like a more practical choice since I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of moving my belongings around.
When NYSC registration started, I did everything I could to make sure I registered with the batch. Everything went smoothly, and I was posted to the state I wanted. I had always dreaded the NYSC orientation camp, but my mom encouraged me to embrace the experience. To my surprise, camp turned out to be an exciting chapter. I met many people and really enjoyed the activities. When camp ended, I was posted to a place for my primary assignment, marking the beginning of my career. I returned home to a festive atmosphere, as the Christmas season was already in full swing.
As I look back on 2024, I feel grateful for all the experiences, both good and bad. Life is a mix of highs and lows, with each experience offering valuable lessons. From missed opportunities and tough projects to moments of resilience and personal growth, every phase had a purpose. The year had its struggles, but it was also filled with achievements, new beginnings, and meaningful connections. Through it all, I learned the importance of perseverance, adaptability, and gratitude. Each challenge was a chance to grow, and each success reminded me of what’s possible with hard work and faith. 2024 may not have been perfect, but it was significant, and for that, I am deeply thankful. Here’s to welcoming the new year with optimism, courage, and a commitment to becoming even better.