In 2018 and 2017 I wrote public retrospectives, and for some reason I didnā€™t feel the need to do that in between 2019 and 2021, possibly because two of those years were pandemic years and I was just trying to survive? Yes. 2022 has arrived and with it the reopening of the world. So much has happened this year that I think itā€™s worth reflecting on.

Note that the list is not ranked in order of importance.

  1. I caught COVID and had no serious symptoms: After two years indoors, this year I went out again for work. As a result, new precautions became part of my travel routine, such as doing self-tests every day during the trip and three days after arriving back home, carrying masks in my suitcase and so onā€¦ Even taking all possible vaccines and precautions, I predicted that I would eventually get COVID and it happened in June! Unlike many others, I survived and recovered, but it was one of the most worrisome things about my year.
  2. I moved to another country: I had wanted to live outside Brazil for a long time, and luckily, this year I managed to move to Canada, the company I work for sponsored the visa and in June, me and bae put our whole lives in two suitcases and came to live in Toronto (if you are here Iā€™d love to meet šŸ˜‰).
  3. I traveled internationally for the first time in years: I hadnā€™t traveled internationally in a long time. Since before the pandemic there wasnā€™t much spare money for traveling and this year I finally ended up getting to know new countries and new cultures, I went through more than 15 airports and 7 countries, long story shortā€¦ It was an incredible year.
  4. Iā€™ve been to 7 countries and more than 10 cities: yes, you read that right. Iā€™ve been working with developer relations for almost two years now and this year I was back on the road to meet developers wherever they were. This led me to fly high and land in several cities in order to share knowledge and connect with people. Not to mention the online events that also took place this year. Hereā€™s the list of countries: šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§Ā šŸ‡®šŸ‡ŖĀ šŸ‡¦šŸ‡ŗĀ šŸ‡©šŸ‡ŖĀ šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦Ā šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡øĀ šŸ‡§šŸ‡·.
  5. I managed to walk more than 18km in a single day without suffering: At the beginning of the year, with the start of going out after the high of the pandemic, I noticed how 2 years of pandemic had been detrimental to my physical health. I couldnā€™t walk 100m without needing to catch my breath. So, I started a journey of improving my health. I went back to exercising focusing on enjoying the events without suffering and reached the end of the year having managed to walk 18km in the same day without feeling extreme fatigue or needing to stop to catch my breath.
  6. I was invited to be part of the GitHub Stars program: The fact that I like git and GitHub is nothing new, but I never believed that my work helping people to use these two tools would bring me such recognition. Everything Iā€™ve been doing is to help people and it was really nice to receive this invitation.
  7. I organized the first meetup at the office: You see, DevRel isnā€™t just about traveling, and after traveling a lot, I also managed to bond with some local communities here around Toronto. I opened the office doors for OWASP Torontoā€™s first post-pandemic in person meetup. I hope to do more of this next year and Iā€™m already talking to PyLadies Toronto.
  8. Saw snow for the first time: I had never seen snow in real life before, and this year I was able to mark this activity as done. Iā€™m still waiting for the ā€œreal snowā€ to fall so I can build a snowman and make a snow angel, but that shouldnā€™t happen until next year.

What about you? What were the cool things that happened in your year?