My Year in Review — 2020
I can’t believe we are finally at the end of this year. What a wild ride we all went on. I hope you’re doing okay. At the start of this year, I could never have imagined the world would rush towards such a tragedy. This year was full of challenges for all of us. A lot of things have changed, from our personal lives to our professional lives. Just like everyone, my life has also changed in this one year. If I look back at how many things happened this year, it looks like I have lived more than a year in the span of just one year.
This article is just a reminder for me that I kept living my best in 2020 and never stopped exploring myself even in this sensitive situation. So I will take you along with me to get a sneak peek at my journey of 2020 which I am really proud of.
Break of COVID-19 and Virtual Life
During the last week of March — we got directions from our university that notified the situation of COVID-19 and the closure of the university for two weeks. I spent my time doing some work on my pending semester project thinking that I’ll be going back to university in a few days. but it never happened. My university started online classes after three months of a pandemic situation in my country. We only visited the university for our final exams.
By this time we all knew that this situation will take longer than expected so we have to adjust ourselves to the life of work and study from home. Initially, it was really hard to manage everything but I somehow made it.
Now everything is virtual from classes to hanging out with friends which is very sad. But this pandemic helped me to spend more time with my family and taught me the importance of home which I am really grateful for.
There is one more thing that I am very grateful for during this lockdown period is having more than enough time. It gave me an opportunity to focus on self-growth.
Diving Into React. Js and Flutter
After being quarantined for more than 3 months and spending hours and hours on youtube, I decided to do something productive. At that time I heard the word Flutter being discussed between my techie friends which made me a little curious. So I decided to learn this cool thing. I picked the Complete Flutter Development Course by Dr. Angela Yu.
She explained every concept in such a great way that I didn’t take much time to pick. During this time I made a small application using Flutter — Covid-19 Tracker. In this app, users can keep track of the spread of coronavirus in the whole world and read some guidelines for their safety. Here is a poster of the app that I made:
I wanted to learn React.js for quite a while but didn’t get much time. This lockdown period was the perfect time for me so I gave it a shot. I picked up a React course by Bob Zirol on Scrimba and started practicing.
Developer Student Clubs by Google Developers (Highlight)
Developer Student Clubs are university-based Google Community Groups for the students interested in Google Developer Technologies. I was a part of DSC at my campus for more than a year. So this year I decided to apply for the DSC lead. Finally, I applied, got shortlisted, then interviewed, and got this amazing gift on my birthday(22 July) in the form of this greeting email that I have been selected as a Developer Student Clubs Lead for my campus. Well, what a lucky day!
After our selection, we were supposed to attend a DSC Summit in Islamabad and meet some amazing Googlers. But sadly it got canceled because of the CoronaVirus. We only got to attend a virtual summit which was a great opportunity to learn.
But Sir Saad Hamid organized a small meetup for the DSC Lahore community which was great fun to meet other DSC Leads and discuss our plans. Here is a picture from that day:
I hope you can find me easily 😂
DSC Activities
The situation of COVID-19 has restricted our DSC activities. But this situation never stopped us and we started organizing all the events virtually.
DSC UET then organized a couple of sessions on different topics which helped students in many ways. But my top goal as a DSC lead was a Flutter Bootcamp. There were only three students including me who knew about this technology. So I, with the help of my core team and in collaboration with COMSATs university, organized a 10 Days Flutter Bootcamp.
Now there are more than 50 students in my university who are working with Flutter which made it a huge success. I am really proud of it!
Reading and Journaling
I was the type of person who hasn’t read any book other than my academics. But this lockdown got me into reading and I can’t be more grateful. I am so proud to tell you all that I have read seven books in my second half of the year 2020.
- Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed
- The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Ikigai by Albert Libermann and Hector Garcia
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I started journaling at the very beginning of the year 2020. I find journaling as the best form of self-help. It helps me to organize my thoughts and have a clear mind.
Top 5 Goals for 2021
Writing down your goals to free up some mental clutter so that you can visualize those things that you want to achieve in 2021. So here are my top 5 goals for 2021:
- Getting my driving license
- Reading 20 books (including 10 non-fictional)
- Polishing my development skills
- Prioritize my mental and physical health
- Saying yes to opportunities
I hope you all stay safe and happy.
Happy New Year! 🎉
