2025 Year in review
This read, and honestly, any other one would be nicer if you had Lord Huron — The Night We Met or Asake — Ototo or Nina Simone - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood playing in the background.
Another year, another review.
Programming
As mentioned in my 2024 article, I joined Socium as a Fullstack developer, and most of my programming this year has been related to my work there. The first six months were intense, as I joined, I was already working on complex and multi-month features that were impacting the entire system. I had the ramp up quickly by learning new technologies and a pretty complicated business domain. That took all my energy, and I didn't have a single moment to build anything outside of work.
Once the rush calmed down, I got back to building some side projects. My main focus was to deepen my knowledge of Go, so I started projects that I never completed.
During the year, I also spent time thinking about the direction I want to take for my career, especially which area I want to focus on. For now, I think that I'm interested in two: distributed systems and infrastructure. I have tried to orient my side projects and reading in that direction.
This is the year I made the least contribution to my private projects. It shows that work was consuming my energy.
Writing
I feel like every year I write, "for the next year I want to write more technical articles at least once per month," and every year I fail. This year follows the same pattern; I haven't written that much, only 4 articles:
- On starting a new role
- Symplifying key distributed systems terms: demystifying the jargon
- A decentralised gossip-based cluster membership with Hashicorp/serf
- Understanding the Raft algorithm: My notes from the paper
Even though it's only 4 articles, I have a particular sentiment of accomplishment about each of them.
I like the first article because I thought long and hard about how to approach my new role at Socium, and then I decided to write about it. I don't know if it will be useful to anyone, but at least I wrote it and shared it.
The three others are distributed system-oriented, and being able to explain complex topics thoroughly is always a valuable skill.
Speaking
Public speaking is still something I enjoy doing. This year, I had the opportunity to speak at two events, the DevFestDakar2024, where I talked about one of my favourite topics, "Observability." The event was amazing, the energy, the people, they seemed to appreciate my talk.
Second, I spoke for the Cloud Native Dakar organisation, again about observability. The main idea was to go deeper into the area I didn't have enough time to explore during my talk at the DevFest. Again, it was cool, and I enjoyed speaking. Thanks to my Goat for the opportunity.
Reading
I have the same issue with reading as I have with writing. At the beginning of the year, I always write about reading 12 books, one per month, and always end up failing at it. I learnt that I have phases in which I read a lot, but also phases in which I can do months without reading any pages. This year I have read:
- After: Stephen KING
- Billy Summers: Stephen KING (Still in progress)
- Distributed systems for fun and profit (Programming)
- Distributed Services with Go (Programming)
- Hunger games: Lever de soleil sur la moisson
- Kimetsu No Aiba
The two programming books read this year are my favourites; everyone interested in building large-scale systems should read them. Distributed Systems for Fun and Profit by Mikito Takada introduces you to the complex world of distributed systems, but most thoroughly, clearly explains each concept.
Distributed Services with Go by Travis Jeffery is a great follow-up book because it's not theory; you are really building a complex distributed system with the Go programming language. Honestly, I would lie if I said that I understand everything in this book, but it definitely helps me to learn new tools that I now use in different projects. In fact, I have learnt about Hashicorp Raft and Serf from this book.
Stephen KING is the King, it's always a pleasure to read his books, I even bought more during my trip in France.
The last Hunger Games book by Suzanne Collins is just amazing. I thought that I had already seen everything about that saga, but no, she still surprises me.
Content I enjoyed
Here are a few bits of content out in the ether that I enjoyed this year. Watching:
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
- The shadow's edge
- Sinners
- Destination finale: Bloodlines
- Captain America: Brave New World
- Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution
- Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc
- Power (TV show)
I think this is the year I went to the cinema the most. I watched most of the films on this list there.
I watched the first season of Power five years ago, but I didn't like it at the time. This year, I was looking for something to watch and then decided to check it again. I'm amazed by how the show is amazing. I have almost binge-watched the six seasons. Btw, I have never hated a character like I hate Tariq St Patrick.
Gym & Weight
In the previous years, I have been doing a lot of running, and I enjoyed it. But for this year, I wanted to gain some weight and build muscle. I wasn't happy with the way I was looking physically. I knew that I needed to eat more, so I waited until the Lenten period was over. At the beginning of April, I took a Gym membership for the first time, bought creatine and protein.
Going to the GYM for the first time always feels awkward; you don't really know what to do or how to do it. Thanks that there are a lot of people on the internet sharing gym videos for beginners. Throughout the year, I have managed to go to the gym at least 3 times per week and to eat well almost every day. The consistency, I think, is the hardest part. I still lack it some days or weeks, but I will try my best.
I gained 12 kg between April and December. Physically, you can spot a few changes even though I'm not The Rock yet.
Health
For now, I don't know how open I want to be about this. Once I figure it out, I will maybe share more details. This year, I have been diagnosed with an illness that could impact my life in ways I had never thought of before. I had a lot of medical tests, and I had never felt so vulnerable, embarrassed or even a little humiliated. Everything felt uncertain at one point; I doubted myself, worried, and cried.
After careful examination by my Doctor, it seems that we avoided the worst, but I still don’t know how much I’ll be affected, if at all. Sometimes I completely forget that I’m ill; other times I remember, and it brings my mood down a bit. But we’ll see how things turn out over the next few years.
Traveling
I travelled a bit this year. I have visited:
- Saly, Sénégal: I was in Saly for a work trip organised by my company. Except for the fact that we worked a bit, it was cool to see my coworkers in a completely different mood. We did a lot of activities together, football, swimming and some other things.
- Amsterdam, Netherlands: My main destination was Paris, but I spent a few days in Amsterdam alone first and then with my Mum on my way back to Dakar. I didn't explore it as much, but I really liked the few places I visited. The city has this calm atmosphere that it shares, like everything is moving slowly, and you don't feel the pressure of a city like Paris. The thing most known about Amsterdam is the bike, and I wasn't disappointed. Once there, I even spotted old people biking so smoothly that it was cool to see.
- Lorient, France: My big sister lives in Lorient, so I had to spend a few days there with her. I spent all my time with my niece (her daughter). I dropped her off at school in the morning, cooked for her, and read her stories before she fell asleep. I was also happy to spend time with my sister, we didn't see each other for like 8 or 9 years since we moved to Ghana, then France. Lorient felt like a cool city, small and not that much pressure compared to Paris.
- Paris, France: Paris has always been on my bucket list, and since almost all my family lives there, it was obvious that at some point I had to visit. I spent almost 2 weeks there, even though the city is big and you can't even explore it in that short time, my two little sisters have managed to show me the most important and tourist places. Walking around Paris without a specific destination is a great experience; the architecture is just amazing.
Personal note
For this year, I'm trying something new for this section. I am using James Clear’s format for annual reviews and answering three questions:
What went well this year? What didn’t go so well this year? What did I learn?
What went well this year?
I'm always keen for a party and for my friend's birthday, but I never did anything for myself. This year, cause to the pressure put by my friends, I decided to do something. I have a group of friends who know each other but don't necessarily spend time together. I'm like a bridge between them, so every time that I organise, it's like a reunion. It was the same for my Birthday party, everyone was glad to see each other and had a great time together.
My trip is Paris was also to reconnect with my Family. Before that, I hadn't seen my Dad for like 7 years, and our relationship was a bit complicated. But now everything is great, we have spent time together, drinking coffee and talking about life. I also met my nieces and nephews, and travelled with my mom.
In last year's review, I wrote, "Since I’m starting a new role, I want to be comfortable technically and within the team", and I can confidently say that I achieved it.
I finally passed my driving test, even though I still hate driving, but when I drive, I do it like a crazy monkey.
What didn’t go so well this year?
My health issues pushed me mentally into a place I hadn’t been in for years, the darkest place I can remember. The uncertainty, fear, and loss of control took a heavy toll and affected how I showed up in every area of my life. When I call my mom and cry over the phone, it means that I'm really overwhelmed, but Thanks to her the support.
At the beginning of the year, I had planned to do many things, with clear goals and strong intentions. However, I don’t feel I was as consistent or as productive as I wanted to be. Between setbacks and mental fatigue, it was hard to maintain momentum. In 2023 i wrote that this was my Maximum Effort Era but for this year I lied to myself i didn't work as much as I had to.
I spent too much time on social media. Instead of being a tool, it often became a distraction that drained my time, focus, and energy more than I realised.
What did I learn?
Despite how much you love someone, you have to learn to let them go when you know that you can't be the person they deserve. Chef was there, and now she isn't anymore. Sometimes it hurts, but I know that it's for her better. I don't have someone to show off my office outfit or to show my Gym progress but that's okay I just hope she is doing better.
In the order side I've also learned that you can meet someone and immediately feel that connection, only to realize later that you were wrong or that you misinterpreted it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that you can only offer yourself and hope that it's mutual. Maybe you don't deserve the person, maybe you aren't good enough, maybe you are to fast, maybe, maybe, maybe, but in the end I realized that not everything deserves an explanation. Sometimes you will play a different role in someone's life than you first thought, but that's okay too, just embrace it. It might even be better.
Life can really switch in a direction that you didn't expect it to. I think we’ve all heard the expression that says “La vie ne tient qu'à un fil,” but this year I truly experienced it because of my health issues. I felt like everything was going well, and then a small pain, a visit to the doctor, and suddenly everything was called into question. It also taught me to be grateful for everything I have, and even for what I don’t have. I think one of the main ideas behind faith is that we believe that there is something or someone greater, bigger, something that we can't fully grasp or understand with our limited human mind, so when something that I feel wrong happens to me, I just let it be, again not everything deserves an explanation.
I have to be honest with myself, I'm bad at multitasking. That explains why I haven't had that much progress on the other things when work was putting pressure on my neck; I have to be better.
Sometimes I ask myself what the point of doing all this is, and then I spend time with the people I love (my family and friends), and then I remember why. Every time that I hang out with them, they heal something in me.
And next year?
I have a few plans that I can't share here for now, but outside of that, I just want to enjoy life with the people I love, and being productive and consistent in everything I do.
By the way, Trophée is growing up too fast I'm scared and proud in the same time. She is a beautiful and smart girl, Her favorite subject is math, she does ballet, and she also gets into mischief from time to time. That's the only thing she inherited from me, lol.