I'm not a fan of the heat that comes with the South African summer. I'd much rather be wrapped up in a warm blanket on a cold winter morning than be sweating with my shirt off. As much as I don't like this season, I cannot deny the wonderful time I had over the past few weeks. I am saddened by the holidays coming to an end, but I'm even more satisfied with the games I got to play, the laughs I shared with old friends, the new tech I got to learn and the experience I had in general.

Where am I 🗺️

My career hasn't started, so I have been giving a lot of thought to entrepreneurship while I study. I think it is more than possible, especially since I now have a clearer idea of what I'm capable of, having finished another side project. I've recently had so much time on my hands, and I want to start putting that to good use. I can't say I've wasted all my time since I enjoyed it for the most part but let's say it hasn't been my most constructive summer. I'm not complaining because I'll be back in school in a month and I'll be forced to be at a class as early as 7h45 AM. As for now, I'm enjoying myself while I can.

What am I learning 🧠

React and NodeJS

I'm going through the React and Node courses that I have yet to finish. I didn't make much progress with the course last year, so I forgot almost everything. I went back through topics that I struggled with for a second time just to refresh my memory. The good news is that I understand Redux now. I feel confident enough to use it in a personal project. Although I must say, I'm still wrapping my head around how to throttle requests with action creators. That was the only section that felt alarmingly confusing. I think it will be one of those things that I'll learn by heart.

I haven't learned anything new on the back-end side of things, but I started taking notes that I plan to use for future blog posts. I want to wait until I fully understand the concepts until I try to teach them because otherwise, I feel like I'm regurgitating the content I've consumed instead of making it my own. I re-learned how to use MongoDB. I'm not a big fan of MongoDB because the setup is unnecessarily complicated on Linux, and their docs are written in TypeScript. I'd much instead use an SQL based database like PostgreSQL, or even firebase would do the trick. The good news is that the course we're doing introduced us to Mongoose, a package that lets you model data on MongoDB, and its docs are written in JavaScript. I can't wait until we get to the part where we learn to send automated emails, but it's a long way away. For now, it's one of the only things keeping me going in this course.

Show and tell 📺

Thrift-savanna

I had a friend from high school who started a thrift store on Instagram. I asked them if they didn't mind me making a website for them, and well, you can click here to see the final result. This project was the most challenging one I've ever completed. I ran into so many obstacles, but I got around them eventually. I'm so proud of the final product. Finishing it gave me a sense of accomplishment. It's a feeling that I rarely experience because I usually abandon these projects halfway through, and I had no idea it would turn out so well.

Illustrating

I've wanted to start illustrating for a while. I just never knew where to start or what to make. All I knew was that I wanted to start off easy. So I got an idea to make this lightbulb. With some inspiration from Pinterest, I made this :-)

Please clap. I don't think of myself as an artist, so this is sort of a big deal for me. I never thought I could make it, so who knows what I'll do next? Maybe I'll be the next Picasso and make the next billion-dollar NFTs for Twitter profile pictures.

News Flash 📰

• Got fully vaccinated
• Finished The biggest project I've worked on to date
• Illustrated a lightbulb

This January has been so long, I really can't wait to go back to school. I've had my fun, but I want to get back into the swing of things. I'm so unbelievable. Two months ago, I would've been begging for this break. This year might be my last year dealing with assignments, and I don't know if that's good or bad. In any case, one thing is for sure. I'm going to make this year my best one yet.