Looking forward by looking back
With the ring of the new year still fresh, there is no time better than now to review the good, bad, and best of last year while preparing for an eventful 2018.
Conferences
One of the biggest achievements for me this year was speaking at my first conference. It only got better from there as I was able to speak at 2 other conferences giving a total of 4 sessions. Even had one of my talks doodled by David Neal!
I also went to my first React conference! Where I was able to meet some amazing people and was left both inspired and enlightened. Huge thanks to the React Rally organizers and speakers.
Nodevember 🎉🎉🎉
I was also very honored to help with an amazing conference, Nodevember! It was a long time coming and the anticipation [although high] could not compete with how amazing the event played out. I can not thank everyone involved. I look forward to continuing my work on this conference as the chairperson in 2018!
Travel
2017 was overall a great year for travel for me and my family. As a family we were blessed with the ability to visit family 4 times this year. I particularly enjoyed seeing family that I have not seen in several years. This was topped off with a fun and light hearted conversation with my great uncle days before he lost his fight with cancer.
Looking Forward
One of the biggest things that happened in 2017, is also what I look forward most in 2018. Working at Eventbrite! Having been working for 2 months now, I am leaps and bounds more excited to come into work than I have been in the last few years.
Resolutions?
Not that I like the idea of them, here are some things I hope to focus on in 2018!
Being more decisive and clear
In the past my energetic side has taken over and caused me to be unclear. I want to maintain my reliability and response time, but I want to ensure that I am taking the time to be accurate and focused on the task at hand.
Less conference travel, more family travel
As much as I enjoy conferences, my family is my core and I want to make sure I am keeping a proper balance. I also want to focus more on the Nashville community. My largest goal is to go on a family trip that is purely a vacation and not nested in seeing family.
Produce more and give back
My experiences are my own and I understand the impact they can have on others running through similar unique scenarios. I want to work more on sharing more about my learnings, failures, and interests. Currently, to me this looks like more blog posts, but I would love for it to extend to live streaming.
Extend beyond web; reach for a broader horizon
For my entire career, my focus has been on web applications and the immediate stacks that are related. I want to jump outside of my comfort zone and build something with my hands. This may be something using react-hardware or woodworking. To be honest, I think it is more than likely going to be hardware based, but I like the idea of going to the extreme.
Happy New Year!
This is more than enough from me. I look forward to hearing from you all in the comments or on Twitter with your plans or just encouragement as I drop the mic on 2017!
Kyle is a mic dropping, event loving, family man. Although, he extremely dislikes web development, React has reignited this love-hate relationship. His antics can be found on Twitter as @kylewelch.
