Opportunities Abound
Starting and completing the Udacity Front-End Nanodegree was undoubtedly my biggest personal development achievement for the year 2018 and even though the year itself was a rough one in a lot of ways, I have at least that one thing I will always be thankful for.
I know myself to be someone who takes my personal development very seriously. Quoting my very good friend, OLUWATOBI,
“There’s always an updated version of Funto every time you talk to him”.
Even though she uses those words jokingly most of the time, I know there is a large amount of truth in them and it’s a source of encouragement and continues to push me to be deliberate about my personal growth and development.
The journey to becoming a certified front-end web developer began early in 2018 when I applied for the Google Africa Challenge Scholarship. I had been out of my former work for a few weeks and wanted to fill my time with something productive. That process culminated in my getting the Nanodegree program. I wrote about the Google Africa Challenge Scholarship in an earlier post.
The most important lesson learnt from the Nanodegree was the importance of having a strong support system. Thanks to the very efficient Peer Learning Group system put in place by the Andela Learning Community and the various channels of communication set up by Udacity, I successfully completed my Nanodegree in October 2018, just in time to meet the deadline, despite the very many low points and challenges faced on the journey. As Team Leader for my Peer Learning Group, I had no other option but to set the pace for everyone else on the team.
I’m still on the lookout for work that will allow me to make the best of the months of hard work, and I recently applied to become a part of the Udacity mentorship program as I believe it would be one way to combine my new skills with my passion for seeing other people develop and become better versions of themselves. This nonetheless, I continue to improve on my skills with the Grow with Google program in collaboration with Pluralsight.
In concluding this post, I will like to encourage every young person out there to seek out opportunities. They are everywhere. Find them and make the best of them. I am grateful for the opportunity to be Made with Google, Andela, and Udacity.
