Happy 2020! It's that time of year again when I look back on everything I've done in the last year and set new and powerful intentions for the new year. In preparation for this post I reviewed journal entries, events I put into my calendar, my spending, my work, travel, and community contributions, as a way of reflecting on what in the last year was most fulfilling and what contributed unneccesary suffering in my life.
I realized from my journal entries that I struggled emotionally last year following the death of my grandmother and the struggles that occurred in the Girl Develop It community. My boyfriend and I have also been working to transform our relationship from a casual dating experience to more of a partnership, and I've had to confront a lot of my own bullshit in way that I never have before.
My reaction to much of this was that I spent a lot of time at home in 2019. I hid, protected myself, and didn't contribute as much to my communities as I have in the past. I don't regret the time I took for myself in 2019, but I'm feeling motivated to get out more, be about people, and expand my horizons a bit more in 2020.
So, if you're curious, continue reading to see what I accomplished in 2019 and what I'm looking forward to having in my life in 2020.
Software Design & Development
I made 1,451 contributions to Github in 2019.
That's 51% more contributions! And I am proud of what I built last year. I had a lot of fun designing and developing front-ends for 2 really great Orlando Startups last year. I even got to work more in the backend, doing migrations and API work for small features. As you can see from the screenshot, my contributions dropped off at the end of the year as I am focusing less on writing code and more on UX Research & design, with the intention of helping my team produce better, more usable software, and reducing rework for the engineering team.
Here are some of the projects I contributed to in 2018.
- Consumer Login (React)
- Consumer Checkout (React)
- Consumer Location Detection (React, Google Maps API)
- Driver Shifts (Design, React)
- Vendor email templates (Pug)
- Consumer Tipping (React)
- Vendor Customer Management (Design, React)
- Depot Managment (Design)
- Vendor Point of Sale (Design, React)
- Brand Onboarding (Design, React)
- Brand Creative Brief (Design, React)
- Brand Campaign Photo Grid (Design, React)
- Admin Portal (Design, React)
- Admin Orders Management (Design, React)
- Admin Product Checklist Builder (Design, React, Canvas, JStoPDF)
- Admin Automated Shipping Labels (Design, React, Shippo)
- Admin Post Managment (Design, React)
- Influencer Profile (Design, React)
- Influencer Change Password/Email (Design, React, API)
Other
As I'm doing more design lately, I suppose I should figure out how to quantify that too! Here's what I've got!
- I pushed 384 uniques screen designs to Invision
Business
Distribution of Work
Here's how I spent my "productive" time in 2019:
- 30.2% - Development
- 25.9% - Design
- 21.6% - Project Management
- 8.6% - Admin
- 7.3% - Code Review
- 6.5% - QA
Code Hangar had its 4th birthday in October of 2019. We did some hiring, and unfortunatly had to let some team members go, which remains one of the most painful things I've ever done and has made me much more careful about hiring. We currently have 5 team members, some full time, some part time.
My brother decided to make a career transition out of the hospitality industry and into web design so we started working on developing new business together toward the end of the year. Its something I would not have predicted and I'm so appreciative that we now have a new way to connect and take care of each other!
The biggest change in business this year is that Code Hangar and our client, Statusphere, have decided to officially join forces in 2020. Code Hangar remains open for business, we have no need to shut anyting down, but Statusphere is now our only client, and for all intents and purposes, the Code Hangar team is now the Statusphere Tech Team and I am Statusphere's Cheif Technical Officer (CTO).
I'm excited about this change for several reasons. Statusphere has shown impressive growth in the last year, and I'm excited to help establish Statusphere as a real, if not the best ever, tech company in in the eyes of investors, and to be able to point my team's energy in a single direction (hooray for less context switching!) and see what amazing things we can accomplish!
Community
- Girl Develop It After witnessing a long and tragic meltdown by members and leadership due to issues of racial discrimination within the organization, I decided to step down from my role as Chapter Leader of Girl Develop It in May 2019. Its not something I'm particularly proud of but I felt I needed to do it for my own mental health. The conversations around the issues within GDI in Slack and on Twitter became so toxic, and I was already nearing burnout, that I decided to throw in the towel and give myself a break. Mainly, I miss having a powerful way to bring coding education and experiences to women and non-binary adults in Orlando. I miss having a national support network of others pursuing the same mission. I'm sad to have seen a community turn on own members in times of difficulty. I'm not sure what's next for me in coding education for women and NBs in 2020, but I'm definitely missing this contribution in my life.
- Orlando Devs This year I transitioned from Advisory Board member to Executive Board Member of the Orlando Developers Group. I participated mainly in an operational capacity, behind the scenes (behind my screen), rather than actually getting out to any events. I allowed myself to be antisocial and contribute what I could from home. In 2020 I'd like to engage with the community more at events and put my energy into initiatives that promote diversity, generosity, and collaboration.
- I gave a talk called Writing Proposals to Get The Job at Orlando Spark in May
- I got to participate in a panel with several other amazing women at Together Digital in October
Life Things
Travel
- 3 days in St Augustine, FL
- 1 week in Paris, France
- 1 week in Brussels, Belgium
- 2 weeks in Indianapolis, Indiana
Personal Development
- Started couples counseling with my partner, Max, in April and its one of the best things we've ever done. We've been together almost 4 years now, and in our transition from casual dating to considering building a life together, we're walking into sensitive and uncharted territory. Having the help of a professional through it has been invaluable.
- Completed the Landmark Forum in November
- Currently attending Landmark's Creativity Seminar through March 2020
- Looking forward to attending the Landmark Advanced course in January 2020
Landmark has been a pretty incredible addition to my life. Its got me working on distinguising the difference between what actually happens within relationships with people, and the stories we tell about what happens. And beyond that it has been helping me to see the power I actually have to make a difference for people in the world.
Together, Landmark and couples counseling have me feeling really positive about what I can do in 2020!
Resolutions
Creating my New Year's resolutions has been a challenge. It has been so hard for to make commitments to myself, because I'm afraid I just won't stick to them. But, you know what? Who cares! Here are some of the things I want in 2020 and at this point I'm not prepared to let myself stop me!
- To perform at Immerse Orlando, a street art event. To me, this is a pretty bold resolution. There was a time, a few years ago, when music was an instrumental (pun intended) part of my life. And, in the last few years, as I've poured more time into work, and building Code Hangar, I haven't had a very strong relationship with my guitar or songwriting. I miss the positive impact that creating music has had in my life. So this year, I'm committing to allowing music to be more present in my life, to appreciate what songwriting gives to me and the people I share it with, and to open muself up to sharing music again. I realize that to achieve something like performing at Immerse, I'll have to embrace my artistic side and Orlando's art community in a way that I never have before, and allow it to touch me in ways I can't even predict. I had been afraid of adding this one to my resolutions list, but I'm not going to let myself rob myself of this one any more. So what if I have no idea how I'm going to do it, or whether I can actually achieve it. I'm just going to keep this dream present throughout 2020, and do whatever aligns with that dream!
- Visit "Wintark". My friends Winter and Ark moved to Pheonix Arizona a few years ago. I visited them once, shortly after they moved, but not again since! This year I'd love to spend a week in Pheonix to see them, their scene, the people they love and appreciate, and whatever might open up for me there.
- Fill my house with plants - This is pretty self straight-forward I think. By the end of 2020 I want to be surrounded by foliage in my home and I want to nurture them to thrive. This is partly to help beautify my home, but also to give me a theraputic and nurturing outlet. In 2020 I'm gonna be 100% that crazy plant mom.
- Smile more. I spend a lot of time at home by myself, and I've noticed that when I'm not around people, I tend not to smile much, and I'm conserned that I've let that bring my mood down more that I had realized. So this isn't just about smiling, its about appreciation, gratitude, and just allowing myslef to be happy, whether I share that happiness with someone else, or just myself!
- Reduce waste. I've been living a pretty priveleged life lately. In my experience of abundance, I want to make sure I am also taking care and not taking things for granted, like energy usage, amazon deliveries, trash vs recycling. I want to prioritize buying local. I want to prioritize reuse over buying new. Waste is easy when we prioritize convenience, but our environment is fragile, and I am committing to start doing what I can to help keep our planet healthy.
- Make Statusphere the best tech company in the world. This is pretty aspirational, but it motivates the hell out of me. I may write a separate blog post on what all this means to me. I have a lot to say on the topic and I'm finding it difficult to summarize at the moment!
- Be an influencer. This might actually be the most difficult resolution in my list. My company, Statusphere, is a social media company, and I've resisted working on my social media presence in the last year, but what the hell. I just want this to be fun. And I think there is some benefit in allowing an audience to keep me accountable. So, I'm going for at least one post a week on Instagram or Twitter.
Well folks, thats all I've got. Its been quite a journey of self-reflection, and intention setting for the new year and I'm ready for what's possible! I wish you a fabulous and exciting year, as well! Let's go, 2020! 🙌
