Since childhood, I have grown up around computers and all the fancy and latest tech gadgets that I could afford, once had a goal of cracking the best college and pursuing either an aeronautical or a computer science degree when I was in high school. But somehow ended up picking Mechanical Engineering as my future study and also completed my diploma, at this stage had no option, but to continue studying mechanical engineering unless I graduate.

But since lockdown, I decided to code with lots of ups and downs in the journey, started with "C", didn't understand anything but kept on going, started learning random computer applications and uses via youtube and now I had no interest in my academics and neither did I know how to code properly.

It was 2022 and I had no idea how to write a basic program in any programming language. But that changed by the end of this year!

Start of 2022 🥶

I was bedridden for the very first week of 2022 I caught a fever the very next day the 31st (lol karma). I started this course in python on Udemy and started the #100daysofcode challenge and started doing python, I was unstoppable for the first 20 days and then I lost the will and motivation to continue, it was very hard for me to understand anything then.

After losing my focus on python I had already completed my basic web development course back in 2021. I revised my web dev and then started developing an interest in web design. But I used to play Valorant, day and night at that time as my college was online and I felt no need of studying anything at all, I was completely addicted to Valorant and sometimes I played it for more than 3 hours in a single stretch. My February and March got wasted with no amount of study and skill improvement in the bank, but with just cheap dopamine activities all along.

Mid of 2022 💢

An acquaintance of mine asked me to contribute to his website project along with a team and I was eager to work, then around May, June and July I worked there but didn't gain any knowledge, but I developed an interest in web design and always had a question how websites are developed and how is the content in it decided and mapped before execution. The day I realised that I was wasting my time contributing to that project, I stopped going. I was working on WordPress then, but I did not like WordPress so I searched for some more no-code platforms and discovered Webflow and bought a course by Vako Shivli on Udemy about web design and implementation of that design into a website.

I got so involved in that course and completed it in just a month with regularly attending college, at this stage I got a purpose and I said bye-bye to my video game addiction. It is far easier to overcome addiction once you find a purpose to work for and then you have no time left for doing things that make you regret.

Towards Determination 🏃‍♂️

Now I was fully into the flow of learning and building something, after the course I did not want to freelance instead I chose to learn web development using code (cause why not?).

I discovered a video about web development, and it changes my perspective on learning web development, I followed everything according to the video and after about a month and doing projects using react, I bought a domain of my name.

On the 5th of October, I bought https://tanishhire.com and kept doing projects for a while.

Learning web development wasn't enough that too only front-end, so I decided to start with python I left in January and in November I decided to start the #100daysofcode challenge again.

I started around the 25th of November and haven't stopped since, I now clearly understand python.

So far I have got a grip on:-

1. OOPs

2. Pandas

3. APIs

4. Fetching data from a website i.e. web scraping

You can check out my progress on the #100daysofcode challenge on Waka Time or follow me on Twitter.

I went from a video game addict to learning:-

1. Web design

2. Wireframing

3. Figma

4. Webflow

5. WordPress

6. HTML, CSS, JS

7. Tailwind CSS

8. React JS

9. Python

My start of 2022 was hard and demotivating but I had the courage and will to learn something and I have to contribute something valuable to the people in the world. That was the motivation I gave myself whenever I felt like giving up.

Here is a blog of mine explaining how I become a web developer in 3 months.

Now I code every single day without any effort, it has just become a routine now. After finishing python I have plans of doing full-stack web development i.e MERN and then AI and ML. 2023's gonna be a great year in tech!

Once you push yourself initially and generate a rhythm and try to keep it for a longer run, no one can stop you. At this stage, there is no need for motivation cause you are already in the flow!

I also read around 8-9 books this year and I implemented everything that I could after reading, which helped me learn a lot in every aspect of life.

I feel - Reading without implementation is eating healthy without exercise!

So you may ask how I overcame the gaming addiction? My only answer I finding a purpose, reading books and taking action that it, its that simple.

The day I decided to stop playing games, I uninstalled every game on my PC and mobile and started reading books, watching movies and youtube videos about productivity, self-improvement.

Conclusion 👋

This was my 2022 and it was not a perfect year yes, filled with ups and downs, highs and lows but I learned a lot about life and tech this year. Looking forward to contributing something valuable in tech shortly.

If this blog inspired you in any way let me know by commenting or DMing me on Twitter. You can also follow me @tanishhire5 on Twitter.

#DevRetro2022

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year 2023! Thank You for reading.