The review of this month will also be the review of 2023, mainly because finally this month I went on vacation, and there were no new activities, just relaxation. Sometimes it's good to completely disconnect from work, goals, and even training. It takes time to regenerate, and above all, to enjoy the moment one is in. This vacation made me see how much I have achieved this year, how many satisfactions I have obtained, and that sometimes it's time to stop and live without always trying to chase something or someone.

I am very satisfied with the goals I have achieved this year. I started in 2023 by leaving my old job to start working remotely in a startup. If I think back to those days in early February, I relive the fear and excitement of everything, the language, comprehension, distance, new colleagues—everything was a new challenge. Today, a year later, I am proud of how things have gone and of diving into this adventure; I couldn't have made a better choice. Of course, this new challenge required a lot of concentration, attention, and training—in learning/improving a new language, new technologies, communicating remotely with colleagues—small/big things to carry forward every day.

Another goal for this year was to give a talk, to speak in public. I thought it would be impossible, but I managed to do two, at Florence Meetup and Codemotion in Milan. It was a beautiful and very instructive experience. I dedicated a lot of time to studying and met many new people. If you want to know more, there are posts on the blog dedicated to these experiences.

Throughout the year, I contributed to and participated in various open-source projects. Contributing to open-source projects is always a challenge, but the satisfaction of seeing my PR approved is immense for me. Sometimes even small changes, but knowing that I can give something back to those who spend so much time and energy building essential projects is very important to me. On this topic, you can read more in various posts; I talked a lot about the open-source theme because it matters to me that the importance of these projects is understood, to contribute as one can, and always be kind and respectful to owners and other contributors.

Another beautiful experience this year was the Open Source Day 2023, an event to which I dedicated a separate post. If you want to know more, read here (). This year, we will replicate it; here is the link for the Open Source Day 2024 where you will find all the information. This event was many things—organization, a challenge, involvement of other communities, sponsors, a lot of energy, and above all, a group effort. We managed to create a gathering moment for many developers with interesting and innovative content, even involving international speakers. Having had the opportunity to participate in this event in person was an important experience for me.

Another topic I set out to pursue this year was continuous education, and I would say that with all these events, I managed to pursue it with satisfaction. I must also say that it was not easy and sometimes tiring, but step by step, I managed to learn and study new things. Certainly, it was easier because I had to prepare talks, and when you have a goal of explaining, and showing the result of your studies to someone, it is easier to achieve certain goals. For this, I must also thank my company, which invests in our continuous education, proposing new topics to delve into every week. I really like the fact that we carve out time to be able to share and discuss more or less programming-related topics because, of course, in a team, there is much more than that. In addition to computer training, one thing I pursued during the year was the study of the English language, to improve my way of communicating; this was also a very important aspect for me. I followed a course with Amil Rasheed, TEFL, which was of great help in improving my English.

I would say the last goal I set for myself was to write a post per month on this blog, which I started with this purpose. I have never felt very capable of writing, and especially I always wondered what I could write about until I decided to share my experience as a developer. It was a great method to keep track of what I did, achieved, and sometimes even what I couldn't. I am very happy to have written these posts, even if sometimes with difficulty; for example, in September, I couldn't publish anything. It is not always easy to keep such a commitment; not all months are the same, the amount of commitments, and also the desire to do so. I don't think I will continue this year because the activities and goals of this year are different, and I would say even more demanding. We'll see...

I am delighted with 2023; it was a year full of new adventures, and let 2024 begin.

I hope you enjoyed it, see ya!😎