Just getting through this year is something to be proud of

Hi,

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated, made new content or even just shared on here what I’ve learned or have been up to. It’s honestly, because after awhile, the pandemic and overall state of the world made me want to re-evaluate what was important to me. More so, I was mentally exhausted with trying to juggle maintaining being hopeful, staying on top of being safe, reading the design/ tech arguments on the timeline, caring for family, dealing with being isolated from friends, working, and having a hobby or 2 that can keep me mentally sane because I was at a point of losing it. Burn out shows up in different ways depending on who you are and for me, it showed up in the fact that all I wanted to do after work or on the weekends was sleep. Something had to give. A lot of things had to give. I couldn’t find the energy to create for tech anymore outside of my job and a few tweets. So I chose myself. I just wanted to make it through the rest of the year with my sanity in tact.

I focused more on my hobbies and stopped caring about tech. Let me re-phrase that, I stopped being immersed in the discussions and whatever flavor of the month “trend” was going on. The world is on fire, people are dying. I couldn’t care less about about the newest micro interaction trend for 2022. I truly just did not care about tech and couldn’t find it in myself to care outside of work. I think my final straw was the fact that one side my family recently had covid and I wasn’t going to be able to see them or even get a hug from my father or my grandmother this Christmas or my birthday. I won’t be able to see them before the end of the year either. I emotionally lost it for a second and I needed to. Sometimes the simplest of things will be your breaking point. Don’t worry, I eventually pulled it together. I never really took the time to “mourn” the fact that I’m in a place where I have the means to enjoy life but the world’s circumstances have put it to a halt to some extent. I needed to let out my frustration and anger instead of forcing myself to say “ this is fine” and bury myself in work to mask it. But the most positive outcome from this is that I was able to really re-evaluate what’s important to me, where I want to focus my attention, and what I’ll be doing next year to combat feeling like that again. I’ll share that in the next blog post as I’m still working out the details and how I’m going to pace myself . Just know I’ll be back to writing and making videos more next year. When I look back on this year, I have a few things to be proud of but ultimately, just making it through this year is enough for me.

In the meantime, I’m going to sip on the latte I just made, read up on web3 ( I’ve worked in the crypto space before. I want to fully understand web3 basics and how UX is going to play a part in this. ) I’ll share my thoughts on it once I fully form them.

Until next time, be safe, take care of yourself and have a happy new year!

-Nita