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Proudest Moment - Becoming a GDE
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I became a Goggle Developer Expert 😇!
I never thought about applying because I thought that with my small online presence, I don't have enough influence and other GDEs regularly publish videos or give talks, which I don't do.
I thought I'd give it a go anyway, I have nothing to lose. It was exciting to go through all those application steps and interviews. I had the honour of convincing Sam Dutton, a Googler, why I was a good fit for GDE, and I nailed it.
<img width="100%" style="width:100%" alt="I am a Google Developer Expert" src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1OYyd_-LJD8bxNaU5mOP-c4C4v7xYDewI" />
Receiving the news in November that I am now officially a GDE was definitely the highlight of 2023.
DEV Contributions
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At the beginning of the year, I continued to regularly write about 2 blog posts per week to fulfill the challenge of writing 2 articles per week for 1 year. A challenge that unfortunately only existed in my head and never on DEVto as a badge criteria 🤣.
After that, things went a bit quiet for me. There was too much going on for me to concentrate on my side projects and such. I started learning Austrian Sign Language 🧏🏽♀️, took 3 courses at university, it was just too much.
That changed when the Hacktoberfest was just around the corner and I made a strong comeback. I got active again, prepared for Maintaining and Contribution in Preptemeber (that's what it's for 👀) and started writing regularly again.
Brilliant Fails
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Did I fail this year? Hell yes, I have 😈. And that's okay.
I used this year to see where my limits were and I reached them. Failing at 3 tasks I had set out to achieve showed me where my strengths lie, how much my brain can handle and how well I planned my time and content.
With all this newfound knowledge, I will be able to make 2024 even more successful 🤓.
Celebrate the Numbers
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- 20 posts published
- 354 total reactions
- January was busiest month
- 78 people discussed tech with me
- 18 hours were spend reading my articles
- #career and #webdev were most used/favorite tags
- HTML can do this was most loved article
- 21 devs mentioned me
Thanks @code42cate for creating this awesome tool. 😄 Is there a chance to generate it for the previous years as well? Would be nice.
Shoutouts
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I would like to thank these wonderful people with whom I have had a special connection in one way or another throughout the year (randomly ordered) 💪🏼:
- @corinamurg
- @eddiejaoude
- @_collab_lab – @adiatiayu
- @pradumnasaraf
- @emmadawsondev
- @grahamthedev
- @arisa_dev
Check out their GitHub profiles, blog post, and more, these people are amazing!
Future Goals
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My main goal for the future is to make my project Accessibility First more visible.
I also have other goals in mind for my career in the field of accessibility, and I'm currently trying to plan them out.
What Does DEV Means to You?
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DEV has made it possible for me to become a blog post author. Since I started writing, I've had nothing but good experiences with the platform and the community that no other platform could offer me.
And it seems that not only does DEV mean a lot to me, but DEV means a lot to me.
I was voted Favourite Author of the Year, which makes me proud and I feel welcome 🥹 .
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