Blog Post

As someone born in 1990, I have always used the years divisible by 5 as checkpoints of my life. I think it started out as an easy way to keep track of my age or something trivial like that. Nevertheless, I use it as a time to evaluate myself and the things I have accomplished but more importantly, plan for the future. Not to say that I don't do that as deemed necessary by myself between every 5 years but I think it allows for more perspective around this time.
I am currently quite happy with where I am - both in regards to my personal and professional life. In 2014, I bought a house by the lake and got a job as a front-end developer at a startup. I like to build upon every goal - there's not really a finish line. That being said, I wanted to share my goals that are a bit specific to the year, though.

GREAT PEOPLE DO GREAT THINGS… TOGETHER.

#1 - I want to continue improving as a team member. Prior to my current job, "developer teams" were typically more like partnerships. It involved myself and another developer double teaming a project by splitting the work right down the middle. However, now, I work with a few more developers on a tad bit more complex projects than I have before. They each have their strengths and come from different backgrounds so there are often some clashes of ideas. As the least experienced developer in the group, I sometimes would sit by and wait for them to work it out. Lately I have been more vocal and chimed in with opinions of my own which has really helped me develop more of a role. (Hey, I'm the only frontend developer in the group so I get a lot of chances to learn about the backend but the decision making is left to them.)

#2 - Open source a WordPress starter template. I have been developing custom WordPress themes for a couple years now and I have really want to get into making my own starter responsive template. Considering how many different ones I looked at when I first started, I feel this is least I can do to give back to the community.