2022. Phew! What. A. Year.

The person I was at the start of the year is starkly different from the person writing this article. Of course, this is expected. I'm older now, wiser (although my friends would beg to differ), more experienced, more aware of the fact that I still have a lot to learn..., and the list goes on. The major difference I'm referring to though? I am finally a techie!..., after trying and giving up halfway since 2020, yay!

How? Let's take it from the top, shall we?

The Kickstart I Needed

We had just resumed school in January after the holidays and I was neck-deep in my books, preparing for the semester's exams. That came by quickly, and the semester was over in the blink of an eye. We had a two-week long break and that was also getting to the end very swiftly. I was mentally preparing myself to resume school, unaware of the shocker coming my way.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), of Nigeria, instructed its members to go on a two-week long strike, as they needed some demands to be met. This meant no form of teaching, or learning, whatsoever, until the strike was up. Two weeks grew to a month, then two, then three, and then I just stopped counting. My frustration at watching the days go by with nothing worthwhile being done on my end also grew as the days passed. I couldn't handle losing more time, in addition to the time, I had lost due to the pandemic and a prior strike.

Hence, I decided to learn a tech skill in June of 2022. Data Science to be exact. Learning technical writing was a bonus I couldn't pass up on.

My Journey So Far

To be honest, it's been hard getting to this point. I had to do things I wasn't used to, unlearn and re-learn certain habits, and the hardest of all, remain consistent. The fire of frustration fueling me could only burn for so long. The following gives more details about the steps I've taken, and my learning process up until the point of writing.

1. June 2022: This was the month where everything began. The first step was the hardest, but every step after that came without too much thought. I'll list them out for an easy read.

   • I did a lot of research on data science to understand more about the field and its demands.

   • I learnt how to use Excel from W3Schools.

   • I got a one-year free DataCamp access from Fred Brandon Flames Foundation to aid my learning.

   • I realized I needed a roadmap so I crafted one, and it gave me a sense of clarity and direction, (I wrote an article on this, check it out here!).

2. July 2022: This was the second month after I decided to learn data science. This month:

   • I started learning statistics on Khan Academy.

   • I got into EmpowerHer Community and Non-Tech In Tech's first Bootcamp, aimed at upskilling females with a non-technical skill. Mine was technical writing.

   • I took a technical writing course on Aptlearn.

   • I applied for financial aid for the Google Data Analytics Course (GDAC) on Coursera.

   • I completed two spreadsheet tracks on DataCamp.

3. Aug 2022: The third month of learning. Not much was done here as I channelled all my attention on GDAC.

   • I started the Google Data Analytics Course.

   • I fell in love with SQL thanks to the course and enrolled in a track on DataCamp to further my knowledge of it.

4. September 2022: My pace started to pick up a bit here, although I had to take a break at some point.

   • I completed my training and graduated from the EHC x NTIT Bootcamp.

   • I completed the GDAC and worked on two small Excel projects.

   • I took a small break..., which you might consider long, but it's my story, Ha!

   • I took a huge leap of faith and applied for the Outreachy internship.

5. October 2022: Oouu Lala, things were getting interesting at this point!

   • I got my initial Outreachy application approved! This is the start of my journey into Open source contribution.

   • I became more skilled with Git and GitHub and mastered my markdown skill.

   • I attended my first-ever tech event, DataFestAfrica, where I met a ton of amazing people and I got to learn from them.

6. November 2022: My learning had to meet such an abrupt halt, I'll have to continue next year. Let me tell you why:

   • The strike was called off, after eight months! It was so unexpected for me and learning from that point on wasn't the same.

   • Outreachy had to stop Nigerian students from participating due to that, so we could focus on our academics.

   • Before that, I worked on a project with SQL and learnt to use a ton of other software applications like ClickUp.

   • I attended DevFest Lagos and I made a friend! Shocking? I know!

7. December 2022: This is where we are at present. So far:

   • I attended Devfest Abeokuta to remind myself that I am a techie, even though I had to put learning on hold.

   • I've tried to balance my school and tech life to no avail. Majorly due to reasons beyond my control like Electricity.

Typing this out has reminded me of how much of a rollercoaster I've been on. Wow. Let's see how the next year goes.

Challenges Faced And Solutions Implemented

You must have heard the saying, "No pain, no gain." If not, then probably, "Nothing good comes easy." or one that's similar to, "Live the hard life now, and enjoy the easy life later." or -

Oops, right! Sorry. My point is, I faced Challenges (with a capital 'C') on this journey. I'll share a couple below, and some steps I took in solving them.

• Burnout: I am certain a lot of people reading this are familiar with the feeling. I experienced it one too many times. I even ranted about it on Twitter once and to my surprise, a lot of people felt the same way.

Lots of them were so nice to respond and share some helpful tips.

• Laptop issues: The laptop I used (and still use), had some issues that made learning hard. For one, the battery was weak and I could only work when there was power. It was so bad, my laptop got called a television at one point because it goes off as soon as the light goes out. It also had lag issues that made working very inefficient. I haven't found a solution yet, just taking it one day at a time.

• Lack of Electricity: It's no secret that having constant electricity in Nigeria is still a thing of science fiction. Pair that with a laptop that only works with electricity? A recipe for disaster. To help with this, there were some days when I'd have the generator running longer than usual. I could only go on with it for so long. The price of fuel in the country is something else, and It's scarce on top of that. My dad also doesn't like it being on for too long so the noise doesn't bother our neighbours. Let's see what 2023 brings.

• Imposter Syndrome: You know that feeling of being incompetent, and undeserving of the impressive stuff you have? Like you're not worthy of the feat you've achieved? Not good enough like other people? Yeah? That's good old imposter syndrome. I experience it so much, I call it my best friend. And to my actual best friend...

  

  A little something that helps me on this front is documenting my wins no matter how insignificant they might seem. It helps me keep track of my growth and realize how far I've come. Oh! I also try to not compare my journey with someone else's and move at my pace.

• Feeling of Loneliness: A lot of my friends in the tech space were into other fields like frontend development, backend development, UI/UX and every other field that wasn't data science. There was no one I could ask why my dashboard in Tableau wasn't as expected, or how to write a code that performs a certain type of analysis in R. That changed when I joined communities like DataFestAfrica, DataTech space, All About The Data and many others. I had people that could speak my language at the tip of my fingers. Twitter played a major role as well. I connected with a lot of people in the data space and made really good friends too.

• Struggle with consistency: To be brutally honest, the urge to just drop everything and revert to my old ways was so tempting. The new me I wanted to be was asking a lot. Acquiring this skill forced me out of my comfort zone, into the dark, cold world and it made me crave that warmth. But, remembering how far I've come and the goal I set out to attain, was enough to re-ignite the fire in me and keep me going.

Plans For The Next Year

2022 was an amazing year for me. I learnt more about myself and pushed myself to places that seemed so out of reach. If you ask me, I'll say it was a year well spent.

My major plan for 2023 is to better my skill set as a data scientist and technical writer, and gain more experience in these fields. Looking forward to how the year unfolds.

Special Thanks

A huge amount of people played a role in my getting to this really good place I'm at. I'd to say a big thank you and express gratitude for all the help that's been proffered to me. I'll work hard to ensure that your investments pay off and that I'm able to pay them forward.

To Allah, Shukran Ya Rabbi (that means "Thank you, oh my Lord"). To my friends, Mr Chika, individuals in the tech space, tech communities, and everyone that supported my learning even in the tiniest of ways, I appreciate you!

Connect with me on Twitter @teebarh_ especially as a newbie in the data field. I'll be sure to help out where I can!

Source

• Tenor Gifs