End of Summer Milestones

This summer was life-changing for me, both personally and professionally.

Professionally:

  • I received even more positive feedback about my DrupalCon Los Angeles presentation on visual regression testing, including making a top 10 list.  I’m glad so many people found it helpful.
  • I presented two sessions at the NYC Open Source Conference, one at the Security & Privacy Summit on mass code analysis and the other on visual regression testing.
  • I gave a ton (well, 10) lightning talks at local clubs and events.
  • I wrote a well-received guide on visual regression testing.
  • I discovered the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) planning and reporting system is completely brilliant.
  • I discovered how much I enjoy public speaking, that people enjoy my presentations, and that preparing more of them is almost certainly on the horizon.

I also wrote my first text adventure game for Ludum Dare #33!  I love text adventures. There will be more of this.

Personally, I hit one of the most important milestones in my adult life.  Back in January, I decided that I would try as many new things as possible this year and own the outcome of every attempt completely, to better work on personal growth. I discovered some good things, for example, how much I enjoy public speaking.  But I also found that a core skill I thought I had was significantly different from what I thought I knew about myself. This has become life-changing in an unexpected way, which is exactly what I signed up for, but still takes time to process.