This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Compiling 2025.
2024 Summary
Before sharing my plans for the new year, I want to reflect on what happened in 2024. It was one of the biggest years of my life.
In 2023, I moved to Germany without knowing anyone, without speaking the language, and without any preparation. Luckily, I had an interview, got an offer, and moved to Vienna.
2024 January - February
I completed the visa process and was ready to start my first day at the company. Unfortunately, they canceled my contract due to budget issues. I never got to start working and had to return to my home country.
2024 March - April
I couldn't believe what had happened to me. As soon as I got on the plane, I started thinking about what I could do in my situation. From day one, I watched motivational videos for hours every day to stay motivated, played English videos every night before bed, solved three leetcode problems daily, worked on side projects, and researched ways to move abroad.
I have to do what I want to do. I didn't want to believe the fact that I went back without any achievements. One month later, I found out that I could get a UK working holiday visa within a month due to policy changes that year. I applied the next day, received the visa in three weeks, and moved to London.
2024 May - July
It was my first time in an English-speaking country, but I didn't have time to explore or adjust to life here. I jumped straight into work from day one. I applied for jobs, prepared for interviews, looked for people who could help me, made connections on LinkedIn, attended coding-related meetups, worked on side projects, solved leetcode problems, kept updating my resume, joined a coding boot camp, and did everything I thought would help me get a job.
I only had enough money to survive for a maximum of three months, so I had to make it within that time. A whole new culture, loneliness, pressure—so many emotions mixed together every day. But I had to keep going.
2024 July - September
After sending around 200 applications, I had a few interviews, but I finally got my first job in Cambridge. I only had a few hundred pounds left, so if I hadn't gotten a chance, I would have had to give up.
Everyone at the company was friendly and welcoming. I also got to work on a project using React, which I was already familiar with. I was impressed by how stable the company's work culture was.
2024 September -
Everything went well. Even though I didn't understand them well due to my English proficiency, They patiently helped me adjust to my role.
However, life in Cambridge was quite different from what I had expected. A couple of months later, I decided to move back to London. Another month later, I found my current role.
My colleagues here are humorous, friendly, talented, and passionate. There is so much to learn from them, both as a person and as a developer. I am very happy with where I am now.
New Year Plans
- Improve Language Skills
- Exercise Regularly
- Be More Confident And Positive
- Explore New Skills
- Contribute to the Developer Community
- See Programming as a Joy, Not Just Work
1. Improve Language Skills
I struggle with English at the moment, but I know I will improve over time. Besides English, I have recently started learning Portuguese and German.
There was a moment when I felt my English proficiency had improved significantly overnight. It happened when I was learning German intensively. I was thinking in English and speaking without much hesitation, although my vocabulary was still limited. However, as soon as I stopped learning German, my English proficiency seemed to disappear in just a day.
I haven't learned how brain works, but based on my experience, learning other languages seem to help improve my English as well. Even if it doesn't directly boost my English, learning a new language teaches us a lot in the beginning because we start from nothing. I believe it is beneficial in many ways, and I love that.
My language goals for this year are:
- English: B2-C1
- German: A2-B1
- Portuguese: A2
2. Exercise Regularly
To stay consistent with any activity, stamina is really important. In general, health is one of the most important aspects of our lives. It's not just about physical fitness—it also plays a big role in mental well-being.
I have been bouldering since last year, usually once a week. Now, I am trying to go at least twice a week, similar to how people go to the gym. It is a fun activity and also gives me more energy.
I am currently climbing at the V4 level, and my goal this year is to reach V5.
3. Be More Confident And Positive
I tend to overthink. I ruminate on small things I’ve done, replaying them over and over again. This affects my confidence and also my ability to communicate, creating a cycle of negative effects.
That said, I do talk a lot and usually don’t hesitate to speak with people—unless I’m in certain situations, like a business setting, an interview, or something similar.
I will try to think more positively so that I can build my confidence. I believe that improving my language skills and getting used to the culture here will help a lot.
I will keep reminding myself to stay positive.
'Nobody cares as much as we do, so we shouldn't waste our time on things that will never impact our lives.'
4. Explore New Skills
I used to stick to what I already knew. I wasn’t like this at the beginning of my career. Over time, I gradually found myself focusing only on frontend. I felt like I had to.
However, since joining my company, I’ve had opportunities to work and collaborate in different areas, not just frontend frameworks. My team lead, Pablo—who has been using Emacs and Vim for over ten years—introduced me to several tools.
Neovim isn’t a tool that does everything for you. You have to configure it yourself, but once you do, it creates the best environment for you. Since I started using Vim, I’ve gotten used to constantly tinkering with things.
Now, I no longer feel the need to limit myself to just one technology. I have a strong desire to explore other areas—debugging, backend development, DevOps, creating Neovim plugins and CLI tools, and more. There are so many things I want to try.
This year, I plan to create a personal Neovim plugin for myself, a CLI tool with Go to automate installing the tools I need for development, and a web service.
5. Contribute to the Developer Community
This is one of the reasons I wanted to move abroad—I want to make an impact on the developer community, even if it's small. By ‘developer community,’ I mean places like Dev.to, GitHub, LinkedIn, YouTube, and anywhere I can contribute and connect with other developers.
I plan to keep writing at least one post a month, and I’m also considering creating a YouTube channel to share my thoughts. At first, I hesitated. I’m not fluent in English, I don’t have an impressive career, and I don’t see myself as someone special. However, since I started this blog, I’ve received comments and messages from people who appreciated what I shared, and that motivated me to keep going.
I realized that it doesn’t matter how much we have—we can help each other right now. We just need to take the first step. I get inspired by many developers online, and I want to be one of those people who inspire others.
6. See Programming as a Joy, Not Just Work
One of the things I like about programming is that we can enjoy our work. But if we see it only as work, it can become very stressful. We work during the day, and after work, we need to keep learning to stay relevant—otherwise, we risk losing our value in this rapidly changing industry.
I want to see programming as a joy, not just a job. I enjoyed coding, and that’s why I decided to become a software developer. A good salary, being a “10x developer,” or being better than others—none of those were my main goals. Programming is my hobby, something I genuinely enjoy.
It’s like watching YouTube videos and getting paid for it—something you love, but it also happens to be your job. Along the way, I won’t take shortcuts or necessarily follow the best path, but I’ll go at my own pace and enjoy the journey.
Wrap Up
Thanks to Dev.to for giving me the opportunity to reflect on what I’ve done and visualize what I want to achieve this year. I hope to stick with them well, and, by the end of the year, I will look back and see this as a turning point in my life.
Let’s turn our plans into reality this year.
Fighting! (A Korean way to cheer and encourage others!)
Top comments (0)