Proud of you, Benazir.

I sat in front of my PC for a little while and I couldn’t for the life of me, put my words together. I feel like I always lose my mojo in December.

A lot has happened in 2024 and If you have been following my monthly articles, you would be on track. Otherwise, it is not too late to check them out starting from January.

Since I’m giving you a recap of my year, please sit with a coffee or juice, and be ready to cry tears of joy with me about my growth.

For those who are here to scan through, I got you. My 2024 wrapped (a twitter slang just as spotify wrapped) has to be;

1. Got redeployed to a Cloud Team from a Sales Team, Thanks to my persistence. (January)
2. Completed Five (5) Certification courses from Cisco, AWS, ALX, McKinsey & Company and Google. (Q1 — Q3)
3. Got a Full Tuition Scholarship to pursue a diploma in Applied Artificial Intelligence at Baze University. (March)
4. Got a 50% Scholarship to pursue a diploma in Cloud Engineering at AltSchool Africa. (November)
5. Mentored 8 Interns from zero cloud knowledge to cloud literacy. Clap for me please, mentorship was never my forte prior to this. (Q2 - Q4)
6. Cut off 50% Sugar and Replaced with Honey.
7. Dressed Modestly 70% of the time.
8. Enrolled in Zad Academy, a 2-year online program designed to equip learners with islamic knowledge on fiqh, seerah, arabic, tarbiyah, aqeedah, tafsir and hadith. I have successfully completed semester one, with straight As. *claps for myself*
9. Enrolled in a Master’s degree program and convinced 3 of my friends to join. You really get things done when you have a community. It feels like yesterday but we have completed our first semester exams!
10. Became consistent with my blog. Published 19 articles, this would make it 20!
11. Learnt Technical Writing, still on the learning journey, and have published 9 articles so far.
12. Learnt Linux, Bash Scripting, Networking and Team Building on my own. This is all on the path to be a better cloud engineer.
13. Improved on the quality of my powerpoint presentations, confidence in speaking to my superiors and emotional intelligence.
14. Made 10+ friends at work. This means alot to me, because I actively went out of my way to get to know people. Friendships are so beautiful.
15. I started a Business. Guys! Benazir started a jewellery business. Check out my Instagram.

That is not all, but I would like to keep the recap concise. If you got immersed till this stage, you may as well just read the backstory — the good, the challenges, the motivation and the tears.

On My Blog

I remember starting this blog in 2022 because I really needed an online platform to do some gratitude journaling. I have not been the most consistent publisher, until I made a resolution in January 2024 to document my life monthly and measure my growth at the end of the year.

This blog became active monthly, and piqued around september, when I made up my mind to upskill and document my technical writing + cloud engineering journey. It is important for me to look at how far this blog has come, with 19 articles, guys. It is not easy.

I couldn’t be more grateful. We did good, and we will do better next year!

On The Degree

Sometime in August, I was having a lunch with my mentor, Catherine Opara, and we were discussing my enrollment in a masters degree program. I expressed my regret on not enrolling earlier in 2022 when I finished my NYSC. In her usual calming and wisdom-filled words, she said “Na when person wake, na em en own morning start”. Which simply means that whenever a person wakes up is when their own morning begins. And that resonated with me deeply. Very encouraging.

Speaking of encouragement, I convinced a friend of mine, and two colleagues to join me in the program. Luckily, they did and I am not alone in this! We concluded our first semester exams in december and now we await a second semester. *happy dance*.

It is unbelieveable how quick this program has been moving. One thing I would tell you is to not believe anyone who tells you that a masters degree is easy. Whew!

This makes me think about the famous tweet which I would paraphrase as ‘whether or not you enroll in that degree, you would still clock 30 years. It would be better if you are 30 and also have that degree’.

The Diplomas

Around February, a former boss of mine sent me a link to apply to a scholarship at Baze University. At that time, I was too focused on applying for KOICA scholarship which I had so much passion for.

Well, I applied and got in. The 12-month program started in March and has been incredible since. I’m surpised at how consistent I was, even while working as a baby cloud solutions engineer. Did my assessments, attended my friday live classes, aptly completed my capstone project and now i’m in the final phase, internship.

AltSchool on the other hand has been quite the talking point this year on twitter. From the reviews from alumnis to the scholarship opportunities from brand and individuals.

It had me on chokehold like Temu, so I had to enroll to experience the ‘structured’ learning path that has been mentioned countless times. I passed the entrance assessment and secured a 50% scholarship from RubyLaren, which I am grateful for.

So far, so good, even though I have not been the most consistent. Probably because the first semester introduces us to frontend engineering from scratch, which I am pretty exerienced in.

Regardless, I would do better because the effort you put in the beginning most times affects the time and effort you allocate to a commitment in the future. I look forward to being a full fledged Cloud Engineer/SRE Engineer/DevOps Engineer/Technical Writer as AltSchool had promised.

The Courses

I could have just come here to list all the skills I have gained in 2024, but everything was a step at a time. Since I started this year in my transition shoes from sales to technical, my major priority was to learn the basics of Cloud and IT.

As a cloud solutions engineer, I started off by taking the Az900 course on MicrosoftLearn to have a foundational knowledge of the cloud.

It didn’t take a month to finish, then I proceeded to enroll in an AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Practitioner course which took me roughly two months.

Okay I know you’re judging me already, but I was not informed. I did enjoy the course though, and it had given me more insights into the AWS Platform, and also how I could do better in my role as a cloud solutions engineer.

As much as this course had an impact in me, I still believe I learned more on the job, and from my colleagues.

Next, I enrolled in the McKinsey forward program which was meant to equip young professsionals with industry level skills like problem solving, workplace communication, strategic thinking, empathy and so much more.

It was an extensive training, so I enrolled at the same time I enrolled in the Google IT Support Professional Course on Coursera. I got the certification for free, thanks to coursera financial aid.

I loved it. It has everything a tech newbie should know. Infact, I would recommend it to every graduate in this generation. And if you are still deliberating on what field of IT you should specialize on, it dabbles on a lot of branches and could give you an insight.

I proceeded to take the Cisco Cybersecurity Junior Professional Certification course for free, thanks to the scholarship from Ingressive for good. With this, I have learnt a lot of security terms, principles and procedures that have helped me in both my job as a cloud operational excellence auditor and in my master degree first semester exams.

Finally, I took a virtual assistant course on ALX Africa. It has been quite resourceful for me, and also helped me streamline my productivity system. However, I am not sure I want to professionally be a virtual assistant. But Let’s leave that tab open for now.

Business and Freelancing

In August, I felt so broke (not to stupor though) that I started considering participating in online surveys just to earn some cents. That was embarrassing, and I wrote about it in my August article.

After several unsuccessful trials on surveys and attempts to get a remote job, A painful realization dawned on me that I was under-skilled and a generalist . This gave birth to my decision to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch. Moral of the story, January is not the only time to set goals!

I went on to set new goals of being a cloud engineer and technical writer. Let me break down my decision process.

I decided to become a technical writer because it is a more realistic route to improve my finances in a short time. On the other hand, cloud engineering is my primary passion but would take a while before i upskill and earn from.

To integrate them, what I learn from cloud computing would be the wellspring of my technical articles.

I designed a 4-month roadmap and an accountability system which had been tweaked multiple times along the way, depending on my number of commitments during the month.

I have uploaded 9 technical articles so far, and would do more in 2025 insha Allah. I would also lean down to a niche, hopefully. Freelancing seems exciting, and I look forward to earning from it.

Whew. After so many years of racking my brain for business ideas, my sister advised that I just start something. It doesn’t have to be perfect, doesn’t need a logo, neither does it need a structure.

She was right.

I started my jewellery business in december, chose a brand name and further designed a logo after getting the items. The structure really keeps coming up as long as you have started.

Chai. Leave wisdom for Ulphad.

Persistence and Procrastination

I have had my fair share of Persistence and Procrastination this year. From when I consistently pushed for my redeployment from the sales team to a technical one, despite having many obstacles that tried to hinder my movement. To when i Persisted on submitting my application for the KOICA scholarship because I really wanted it, even though my organization was not part of the listed recipients of the scholarship. I tried till the very last point then gave up, which I do not regret. It tested me in many ways and I believe I can handle something of that nature now.

Down to procrastination, I can’t lie I have done alot of it this year. From delaying building a portfolio, writing articles, filming YouTube videos, drafting graduate application essays, cover letters and even applying to graduate programs.

With graduate programs, Perhaps my perspective shifted to focusing on applying to jobs and building skills, rather than garnering degrees. Still, I could do better with structure and discipline come 2025.

Please look forward to my next article on how I create a productivity system for myself.

Finding Myself

I have really found multiple versions of myself this year

• The Empath
• The Teacher
• The Learner
• The Confused
• The Cook
• The Lazy
• The Leader
• The Disciple
• The Messenger
• The Kdrama Girlie
• The Lovergirl
• & so much more I can’t keep track of.

Wrapping up

I had a little accident, I made friends, graced 3 interviews, signed a freelance contract, Lost an Uncle and a Friend, Lost that KOICA Scholarship Opportunity, Made efforts in becoming a better friend and human regardless of my lapses, created an accountability system to become more productive, made conscious efforts to water relationships and improve on my Ibadah, learnt skills & technologies, attended a physical chai event, learned, unlearned and relearned, and so much more. God came through for me in multiple ways and I’m so grateful. Alhamdulillah.

I feel so proud of Benazir.

Moving onto 2025

Some of my goals for the next year include

• Get at least two industry recognised certifications
• Earn from freelancing
• Increase my sources of income
• 2024 was for learning fundamentals, 2025 will be for building badass projects
• Improve my interpersonal relationships
• Exercise more and cut more sugar
• Most importantly, establish a closer connection with Allah.

Thank you for reading. I hope you loved reading it as much as I enjoyed writing. Let’s grow better in 2025. Cheers!✨🫶