From Uncertainty to Growth: My 2024 Journey

2023 was a year of significant transitions for me. Having moved almost entirely away from tech into politics, I devoted myself wholeheartedly to the presidential campaign of His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi. I poured everything into this endeavor, staking all on his candidacy. Unfortunately, the election didn’t turn out as expected, leaving me disheartened and questioning my direction. Resolving to work at the grassroots level, I began contemplating joining the tech team of the Labour Party (LP), leveraging my background in Node.js. However, my confidence in my tech skills was waning.

Early 2024: Challenges and New Beginnings

The year began with a mix of hope and uncertainty. I was still on my IT placement while preparing to resume my final year of university in February. Balancing both took a toll on my mental health. Then came a financial blow: I had to invest in a new laptop. This drained my savings and plunged me into my first-ever debt cycle. I recall feeling overburdened and vacillating between hopelessness and resolve while attempting to get through this trying time. It became nearly impossible for me to make ends meet as a result of the country's economic crisis.

Despite these struggles, I sought new opportunities to keep myself grounded. After serving twice as a church executive, I missed the final year interview and was excluded from the leadership team. Disappointed but undeterred, I redirected my focus to school politics. I was inspired to run for NACOS ICT Director 1 by a friend who had always been a big brother. He asked skeptically, “What’s the guarantee you’ll win?” I replied confidently, “It’s an unopposed ticket.” He generously paid a significant portion of the nomination fee, saying, “It will look good on your resume.” Winning unopposed felt like a small but pleasing victory, and under the leadership of Comr. AdeEmma, I found myself contributing meaningfully to our community. Shortly after, I was restored as the Assistant General Coordinator (AGC) of DLCF Promised Land Location in Olabisi Onabanjo University, a role that reaffirmed my faith and resilience.

Mid-Year: Overcoming Academic Hurdles

I dreaded being paired with my project supervisor as my final year projects drew near. She was an answered prayer, which surprised me. Her kindness and guidance were invaluable as I embarked on a project that stretched my abilities and introduced me to new realms of tech. My project focused on natural language processing (NLP), converting English to Igbo for the retail sector. It was ambitious and exciting, but it came with significant challenges.

My laptop’s limitations—8GB RAM, 232GB storage, and a Core i5 processor—meant training my models was painfully slow. Running one training cycle took over 109 hours, and I needed at least ten cycles. I had no choice but to scale down the project significantly, reducing it to about 5% of its original scope. Even then, it took 20–30 minutes per cycle. This process was mentally exhausting, but I persisted. Completing the project was a significant achievement, one that deepened my understanding of generative AI and expanded my technical horizons, thanks to the unwavering support of my supervisor.

August: Transitioning to the Next Phase

August 1—the day before my birthday—marked my graduation. It was a bittersweet moment, filled with joy at completing this phase of my life but shadowed by the uncertainty of what lay ahead. The thought of “What next?” consumed me for days. Should I pursue politics or return to tech? My previous frustration with tech in 2022 stemmed from isolation and a lack of progress. I’d quit out of frustration, feeling disconnected from the community and unsure of my abilities. However, a brief stint assisting a friend with data analysis training in 2023 had reignited my interest. I realized coding was my true passion—the one thing that consistently brought me joy.

A New Path: Tech Revisited

By September, after several failed attempts to relocate to Lagos, I returned to Port Harcourt. Feeling defeated but determined, I reached out to my CTO, Mr. Ugo Matt. An important turning point was his excitement and faith in my abilities. When he asked about my short-, mid-, and long-term goals, I outlined them tentatively, and to my relief, they aligned with his vision. He assured me of support and a conducive environment, and in October, my journey with Meghee and Cloudnotte began.

At first, learning Golang felt daunting. I’d never worked with the language before, and grasping the basics took time. I also ventured into GraphQL and Gqlgen, which were equally challenging but rewarding. MongoDB became another area of focus, where I learned to foster relationships between collections and optimize database performance.

The Hurdles and Triumphs

The journey was far from smooth. My first task was implementing JWT authentication. It took me two weeks to produce a working solution and another few weeks to refine it into a fully functional system. Debugging GraphQL introduced me to the infamous __typename issue. The frontend and mobile developers kept encountering errors that didn’t appear in the playground. Frustrated, I spent nearly two weeks debugging with no success. Then, during a late-night session, I stumbled upon the problem and resolved it. The satisfaction was immense.

Another memorable challenge was implementing geolocation features. Extracting longitude and latitude from user addresses and creating a function to search within a specific radius tested my problem-solving skills. Implementing OTP functionality using Mailgun was another hurdle I overcame with determination and guidance from my supportive boss.

Lessons and Aspirations

One mantra defined my journey: “Identify the problem, and the solution becomes the easier part.” In programming terms, understanding the logic and flow makes writing code the simplest step.

As 2025 approaches, I am energized for new challenges. My goals include implementing chat functionality with WebSocket, video and audio calls using WebRTC, and delving into Kubernetes, concurrency in Go, goroutines, and microservices. I’m optimistic about achieving even greater milestones in the coming year.

Gratitude and Hope

To everyone who played a role in my 2024 journey, thank you for your support and encouragement. To my family, thanks for being a huge support. To my friends Nosa, Joanna, Gabriel,Gift, Bola, Charity, Olu, Ola, Shayo, Kamal, Esosa, Victor, Joy, and Eri, thank you for being constants in my life. I’m hopeful that 2025 will bring even better results and opportunities. Here’s to growth, resilience, and a fulfilling year ahead.

Happy New Year!

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