It’s that time of the year again—the time for making promises that fizzle out halfway through January or February. But this year, I’m done with promises. Promises are for dummies, and I am beyond that. Instead, I’ll do a recap of this year, like those "Spotify Recap" or "YouTube Recap" things, but without the fancy images and graphics. Mine will be plain and boring.

Overall, the year went pretty well despite the many joy-sucking moments and soul-draining events. That’s the one-line summary. If you want more, keep reading.

I started the year on a high note. I was motivated beyond belief and began learning new things like Machine Learning (ML) and AI. Along the way, I started a few side projects—two of which I actually finished this time and even showcased during interviews. I also joined a cult: The Rust Cult. I’m sorry, Mom.

January
I completed one Udemy course on ML and began working on projects based on what I learned. Later, I realized some jobs still require you to build CRUD apps, so I started working on side projects. One of my proudest projects was a medical suite. It included appointment management, doctor management, billing and receipts, and a client-facing app that stored prescriptions and records. It even featured an "ML" model that predicted diseases based on client symptoms. Pretty awesome, if you ask me (or my older self).

February
I finished yet another course—this time on Rust. Once I completed it, I began spreading (mis)information about Rust. That was literally it. Nothing else happened.

March-April
I started job hunting, and luckily, my internship company had an opening. How did I find out? I texted the two coolest people there, got an interview, and then received a job offer. To prepare for the interview, I built a small Linktree clone. At the time, it seemed nice, but looking back now, I can spot some potential security flaws (see how much I’ve grown?). After the interview, I got the job offer within a week (and people say engineering/web dev jobs are scarce).

From then on, I got involved in various company projects. From UI design to leading a project, I did it all. 😎

Mid-Year Adventures
I started with UI tweaks but quickly moved on to backend work. Before I knew it, I was leading a project, which felt as satisfying as eating ice cream in winter. I designed systems, structured databases, and implemented features. I even held meetings with other developers and—brace yourself—complained about the tech stack I chose (just kidding, Tailwind and Vue are literally the best, and Hono is a close second, even though I hate its WebSocket implementation).

There was some legacy code involved too, which nearly broke me. It made me reconsider my life choices (teacher, perhaps? Nah, I was born to engineer). And then came December, when I had to write a functional requirements document for the first time. It was horrifying, and the less said about that, the better.

The Wrap-Up
That pretty much sums up my year. Besides all the tech stuff, I also did some “boring” things like traveling to a few countries, meeting new people, and hanging out with friends. I even read a few books (kidding—I love reading).

On the health and fitness front, I started strong for the first four months, only to mess it all up after traveling and indulging in ridiculously delicious food. So, #2025 is officially the year I get fit (for real this time).

That’s it. Take care. And if I don’t write for a long time, just assume I’m either battling legacy code or learning more about AI.