2020: Year in review — first attempt.
2020. First, we thank God, the most gracious and merciful, for everything. We may not be where we want to be or even achieve what we would like; we may have probably lost some things in the year, but God is why we have not and did not lose all. It would not be excessive to continue to talk about the unfriendly events that rocked 2020 from Northern Nigeria to Beirut in Lebanon to the global pandemic; despite all these, fact that we can still write and read about them deserve gratitude while comforting every family impacted.
While I didn’t set any goal or specific objective for 2020 (first time, oddly), I had in mind several things I thought I would want to do. They included but were not limited to accelerating my coding journey by picking a language to learn, taking a photography trip across Europe with a friend. I wanted to take some courses in Leadership and Management. Reaching-out to some non-profit as a route to community impact. Academically, I had some things in mind too. Of course, some little investment plans wouldn’t hurt anyone; I just wanted, for the first time, the year to drive itself — not sure how it was going to turn out, but anyway, it would be nice to experiment, right?
2020: The start.
And amazingly, the year started quite interestingly, having taken up a new role in the data domain. I had a bit of task to get done to ensure the delivery, including defining projects and working with another team responsible for tool deployment. Though gloomy initially, I was confident that I would get it done, and we started progressively.
2020: Travels.
Not so much achieved. As part of my work, I visited Esbjerg, a city in Denmark overlooking the North Sea. It is a peaceful city, quiet but windy. I loved it. This visit happened in Q1, just before the COVID19 shutdown.
2020: Working from home.
Then COVID19 happened, and many dynamics changed. We could not travel and needed to find ways to solve situations remotely. And like almost everyone, “tele-travail” or “work from home” as widely known became the new norm. It came with its peculiarities. On a lighter note, you must now stay at home with your spouse and kid(s), 24 hours of the day, and you can only imagine! It was not that bad. My daughter attended school via zoom, and when not in a class, she was there to disrupt my meetings (not too much though, I got it in control). When boredom sets in, I played football with my daughter on the balcony.
2020: Transitioning to Product Management.
One of those things I was grateful for in 2020 was my journey to Product Development. Many will use the word chance, but I would say Favor. It was a matter of “at the right place,” “at the right time,” and then voila! At the start of Q2 2020, I took up a Product Management assignment within a fast-growing Digital Factory in Europe. This new opportunity accelerated my journey into Digital Product Management; over a VERY short period, I amassed knowledge and took up a Product Ownership role to develop a digital product for use by a branch of a leading Energy company. This moment was a major for me, honestly!
2020: Education — Training and Development.
Not so much done, notwithstanding, I joined two product management training and obtained my Professional Scrum Product Owner Certification. I also took on two leadership training, one completed; hopefully, I will finish the other in 2021. I attended a coveted Data Training at the prestigious IFP (French Petroleum Insititute) in Pau despite the COVID restrictions.
2020: Nigeria.
2020 was a year to remember for many Nigerians. Sometimes, I am tearful when I think of the country. From killings in the north, serious security challenges to the education sector — I mean, in which part of the world will a government allow schools to go on strike for almost a year — if it were to be their businesses, would they be comfortable doing nothing? Really? It is a shame. While not forgetting the #EndSARS protest. Yet, the economy is dwindling, heavy brain drain, urgent surgery is required ASAP.
2020: Vacationing in COVID19.
Yep, you read that right. Being present in one of the countries most affected by coronavirus seems scary, but again, as notably said, “Don’t Die Before You’re Dead,” right? So while we took precautions, we were fearless and decided to travel to the north of the country to enjoy ourselves on the beach. Yes! Beach! A three-hour drive that gave us a break from work, and from the usual routine. It was worth it, really, and glad we did. Initially, we wanted to go cross-country trip but had to cancel last minute. In return, we decided to also visit Disneyland with our family friends, another exciting time. “You Only Live Once,” they say… YOLO!
2020: Photography.
As you may deduce already, the photography trip I had in mind was a NO. Aside from COVID19 and the restrictions, I was pretty busy with other stuff. Though I was able to “heat up” my camera on Bastille Day (a few of the many pictures captured below), I hope I will be able to manage better in 2021 and will be able to showcase images at flashgun.org. Fingers crossed.
2020: Others.
There were some other things I would love to have done (maybe better) but could not. Investing more time in training, for instance, reaching-out more to non-profit committed to touching lives. Investment (yes, I am silent on this point), but I made some trades, of which I lost quite a little to stock, but anyway, we fail forward, leverage our mistakes, and hope that the NEW YEAR 2021 will confidently deliver good/glad tidings.
