This is the very first self-reflection of this year. Even though it’s only been 16 days since its inception, the year 2023 already taught me a lot of things, especially the potential of a year. Think about how much a year can do for you. To put it the other way around, think about the limitless potential of a year – how much you can change your life in a single year, how much you can learn in a year, and how many new people you can meet to enrich your life. Think about it. And think about the fact that you’re always one decision away from a totally different life.

My 2022 reflection points:

So, here are some of my regrets from the last year. Overall, the last year was an exciting ride, I made new friends through the vast online world and made significant progress on my personal project through which I was able to learn Android’s mobile development phases, Java’s mechanisms, and app development in general.

However, since I spent most of my personal time building the app which was almost becoming my Sagrada-Familia-like endless project, I couldn’t spare my time learning other skills, such as Python, Kotlin, Algebra, and a lot… There were so many things I wanted to learn and experiment with my coding/mathematical skills with them, but I couldn’t.

So, one of my reflection points from 2022 is that I should have widened my eyes for other areas and skills I could gain through the year. And in terms of my obsession with one particular project, the same goes for my personal interactions. I never attended any meetup events, the real-world interactions which you can enjoy by RSVPing via the meetup app, and never made any real-world friends. Eventually, I ended up connecting myself with a few friends I made through the online world, which was great though.

So, all in all, my reflection points from the last year were my obsession with my comfort zone.

New year, new activities:

If you’ve been following my blog, you might be aware of my recent activities – the programming/algebra series I’ve been working on.

• Road to Google
• Be Excel in C
• Android Programming
• Linux Programming
• STEM with Python
• No Linux, No Life
• Algebra
• JDBC on Linux

As of this writing, I’ve been working on whopping eight series on this blog. And one of the major reasons I do this is simply because I wanted to create a motivation – a motivation not only to share my knowledge and activities but also to keep track of my own learning process. And by outputting what I’ve learned with my own descriptions and words to this blog, I can re-educate myself about what I’ve done and what I’ve gained as a skill.

Think about how much I can go further if I keep doing this for the rest of this year. Just think about it. And now you may guess that you can apply this method to yourself at your own pace. As I wrote earlier, think about how much a year can do for you. Just think about it – doubt your doubts and trust your journey.

Living with covid:

Can you really accept this reality? I’m really not sure, though… At least in Japan, 500+ people are dying from covid every single day, so 3500+ people are dying every week – but the scariest part is that it doesn’t represent the actual number. According to a data-science expert, the actual number approximately could be whopping ten times the number announced by the government.

Can you believe it, ten times? And none of the major media mention it openly. Everyone’s sorta aware of the number. But people somewhat stopped talking about it and already started living a normal life. But the question is: can you really accept this reality? Can you? And how can they ignore the data? Numbers never lie and the fact 15000+ people are dying from the virus every month is something you can’t forget.

They don’t know factories are halting their operations. They don’t know transportation systems are not functioning. They don’t know that our modern world’s golden age may have peaked in 2019.

The keyword of 2023 – survival:

Can you survive 2023? Can you survive the rest of the 2020s? That is the question we’re facing at the global level. The world is not the same place when we compare it with the pre-covid world. Russia didn’t invade Ukraine. Covid did not circulate in the world. Inflation wasn’t there. Seriously, what’s going on?! But this is the reality – the reality we’re very much living in.

So let’s shift the gear back and ask ourselves the aforementioned question – Can you survive it? As for myself, this has something to do with my reflection points earlier – my answer to the question is to get the possible education you can access, regardless of the educational form either actual college-type education or e-learning courses, and prepare yourself for any potential opportunities that may arise in the future.

Essentially, if you don’t enjoy your challenges, you don’t enjoy your life. Putin may threaten us with the ultimate weapon’s button at this fingertip – go f@#k yourself! Covid keeps evolving into new variants – believe in the power of science, believe in the power of humanity. The future is very gray and the uncertainty is overwhelming us – doubt your doubts, invest in yourself with the best possible education you can get to earn new skills and trust in your journey.

Afterthoughts:

So, essentially, what we can do at this moment is trust ourselves and invest in ourselves through education and health-related well-being activities. The whole world is now facing an unprecedented level of humanity’s existential threat, but conversely, this could be a great opportunity for us to generate new innovations to make this world a better place to live. And don’t just wait for it to happen – make it happen from your side too. To do so, learn algebra, physics, science, programming, literature, and whatever you can think of that may benefit your well-being and self-improvement, to get through this challenging time and ultimately make pour world a friendly place to embrace the beauty of humanity.

You’re not alone. And let’s start our journey again.

Lots of love from Japan.