Dear 2020,

You are such a roller coaster year for many of us.
And not an exception to me.

I can't say anything more than you have been a bittersweet year.

As a mom, it's very heartbreaking to see my daughter couldn't see her friends and teachers due to lockdowns and uncertainty.
But I'm grateful that she's still happy despite this situation.

As a wife, I am grateful that my husband still can keep his job, though I know that working from home for almost a year is very hard for him.

But you know, I still have more things to be grateful for than to complain about.
And that I and my family are healthy is one of them.

There is a saying, "Start to count your blessing and say your gratitude".
I do this every day, every time.
But this time, let me say some of them out loud in this letter.

📚 Learning

• I got a year membership on egghead.
  Not in a million years that I thought I would be able to access it (for a stay home mom without income, the membership is so out of my pocket).
  Now it's one of my go-to resources for 1 whole year!
  Thank you so much, Horacio & Michael Liendo, for making this happen! 🤗

• I took Full-Stack Javascript Online Bootcamp by Flavio Copes (I got a huge group discount which I could afford).
  I haven't finished the entire Bootcamp, but besides going deep into vanilla JS, I've taken a dip into some frameworks and databases such as Node JS, MongoDB, Redis, Airtable, GraphQL, React, and Vue.
  And because I've tried those things out, I finally decided to learn React (and eventually GraphQL and NodeJS)!

• I start the Frontend Career Path at Scrimba in September.
  And I do enjoy it so far!

• I start to dive into React!
  Thank you, Bekah, for the Epic React Fundamental! I'm forever grateful! 😘

🎉 Achievement

• I finished my first vanilla Javascript mini-project which adding up to a few more mini-projects.

• I did my first open-source contribution!
  I learned how to use git outside my personal project for the first time. Special thanks to Dan Ott & Mike Rogers! 💙

• I start to write blogs more regularly last November.
  Thank you for the initiative of the November monthly-challenge, Virtual Coffee! 🙏
  I even bought my own domain way sooner than I planned!
  I start to learn about Google Analytics and SEO.
  For someone who just starts to write for a little more than a month, looking at these analytics makes me really happy!

⭐ Events, Family & Friendship

• One of the obstacles that I have as a stay home mom is I cannot do networking and attending events in person.
  But because of you, 2020, I could attend several (big) virtual events, even for free! Thank you for that!

• Thank you for keeping my friends closer, for crossing my path with these amazing people who support me tremendously in my journey, and for giving me a big new family! (not in order):

  • Marika
  • Bekah
  • Francesca
  • Wendy
  • Frauke
  • Sara Torrey
  • Surayya
  • Horacio
  • Sophia
  • Sara McCombs
  • Dan
  • Mike
  • Meg
  • Nick
  • Kirk
  • Debra-Kaye
  • All Virtual Coffee members that I can't mention one by one, but each one of them means so much to me! ❤

So, however hard it was, thank you for still bringing beautiful things to me, 2020!

🙏 My Wish For 2021

I hope I could go further with my learning journey and landing a job.

I wish 2021 would be a much better year for all of us 🙏

Cheers,
Ayu Adiati