Reflections of 2021

Reflections From a 16-year-old on a Year of Change and Growth

After a year of change and growth, 2021 has felt like the shortest and the longest year of my life at the same time. Here’s a quick recap of everything that happened (aka the most important things).

TLDR:

• It’s okay to take a break
• Leadership is about guiding your team and delegating responsibilities
• Don’t be afraid to change the idea
• Fall in love with what you’re doing

Highlights

First In-Person Conference

This November I got the amazing chance to go to my first in-person conference- Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal! With 9 other TKS students and 3 directors, I spent a week exploring the city and meeting a ton of amazing people.

Being around some of the top people in their fields, I definitely learned a lot. One thing that was surprising was that most people, even if they are busy, typically want to help young people. When networking, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and join a conversation. I also learned that if you make a personal connection while networking, you will see that person again and again, and you can start making long-term connections.

Another amazing part of going to Web Summit was meeting the people I have been talking online with for the first time in person! At the conference, we helped each other network, using serendipity to help each gain cool experiences. Afterward, we would hang out and the directors would share stories and insights.

Going to this conference was a life-changing experience for me! I meet so many new people and learned a ton of new things!

Working with the United Nations

Another amazing experience I got this year in March was to work with UN women to develop a solution to get more women in developing countries access to the digital economy. For me, this was a great opportunity to practice finding a problem and creating a solution that could be implemented. I also learned a lot about the importance of delegating tasks and responsibilities.

One of the skills I had to practice a lot during this was trying to understand the situation the people you are trying to help are in. Obviously, a solution would be useless if it isn’t what people need. One of the upsides of the pandemic is that video conferencing is more accessible, so although I couldn’t talk to many people who we were trying to help directly, I was able to talk to people working to do similar things while living in the area.

Building a project like this was extremely rewarding, not just because of how the project turned out, but because of what I learned along the way. Because it was a month-long project, we faced challenges in delegating responsibility and leadership. These challenges shaped the way I viewed how to PM a team. I also learned a lot about ideation, because we had to start over in the middle since our original idea didn’t make sense. It’s better to start over and have an idea that works than to try and make a bad idea fit.

It was an amazing opportunity to work with actual people in developing countries and develop my skills in project development!

Meeting Awesome People

Throughout this year, I have had the opportunity to get meetings with over 20+ people! Each person provided unique insights that helped me develop my ideas and as a person. These meetings also helped me get out of my shell and become more confident when talking to other people.

As an introvert, sometimes the last thing I want to do is reach out and talk to someone new. As scary as it was, the people I meet with were extremely helpful and helped me develop and improve my outreach skills. Over the course of the year, I have become more comfortable with cold outreach, and I can get more out of the meetings I have.

Conferences, such as Web Summit and Y Combinator’s Future Founders Conference, were exponentially beneficial in helping me with meeting people. With outreach meetings, you have time to plan what you are going to say, but at conferences, you have to come up with something on the spot, and it has to be short and quick. At the conferences, I learned that some of the best conversations come from being authentic. When you have time to plan, the conversation can feel forced or unnatural, but when you are being yourself it usually is much better.

As important as meeting a lot of people is, the quality of those conversations is more important. Don’t be afraid to talk to people and ask them how you can improve your conversations.

Building Through Hackathons

This year, I participated in 3 different hackathons ranging from environmental hackathons to working with new ideas for a pacemaker. I’ve learned that hackathons are great ways to practice ideation, as well as skills leading a team.

The first hackathon I participated in was through TKS, where the goal was to use our knowledge of emerging technology to create an idea. This hackathon was definitely a learning experience in planning. We started out strong, but since we didn’t have a plan we quickly fell apart. I’ve learned that typically the idea stage isn’t where hackathon teams fall apart, but in the presentation stage. The idea seems great until you think about having to present it to other people. From this experience, I’ve learned that you should plan to spend at least 3–4 hours (if the hackathon is a day-long) creating an idea, and the rest getting validation and making a presentation.

The other hackathon that was substantial in learning was one that went very well. The last hackathon I participated in was in November, and I was a part of a 4-person team. We started out the day by creating a plan and picking a PM. Throughout the day, we delegated tasks so that we could explore multiple idea options in a short period of time. Once we picked an idea, we moved on to the presentation and memo. While some people were responsible for the presentation, other people worked on the memo. Although in the end, we weren’t quite where we wanted to be, we still created a project that we were proud of and had fun doing it.

Hackathons are a great way to develop leadership and build my skills because you are given a time frame where all you do is build something. My biggest takeaways from the hackathons I participated in this year are that delegating tasks is crucial, and for any project (no longer how long it is) you need to make a plan.

Independence in Boston

For most of the month of July (3 weeks), I got the opportunity to go to Boston for a program called Boston Leadership Institute. This was the first time I have been away from my parents for longer than a week, and I also got a lot more independence than I have left them previously. While in Boston, I lived on campus at Emmanuel College and attended daily labs and lectures about biomedical sciences.

Being by myself for the first time, I started to realize how much my parents do to support me that I don’t realize. I had to go to the store to get things like bottled water and snacks. I also had to clean up my area (frequently) and clean up after others. Things that seem like common sense, but that I commonly overlook. It is very easy to become complacent because that is how I have lived most of my life, but being away I realized how much I have to be grateful for.

I also stepped out of my comfort zone, starting conversations to meet people. It’s no fun to be in an awesome city without friends. Once I started the conversation, I was surprised by how quickly I made friends. People get close quickly when they spend all their time together.

I had so much fun exploring the city and meeting new people, as well as learning new skills and information. Between the labs and lectures and living on my own, I learned a TON in 3 weeks!

Personal Skill Development

One of my big goals this year was to focus on developing my coding skills and other personal skills. I wanted to improve myself by working to develop my skillset into something I could use in my day-to-day life.

Over the summer, I spent a portion of my time working on learning to code; specifically in JavaScript and python. I started with JavaScript because it was easier to learn, and I knew I could use it to build things right away. I did a month-long challenge where I spent at least 30 minutes a day working on learning code and let me tell you, it worked great! Consistency is key when you are learning something new. Although I may still have a lot of room for improvement, I now know enough code to do simple projects and understand other peoples’ code!

Another personal skill I wanted to develop was PMing (project management). In the past, I have typically let others take the lead, even though I wanted to. I did this because I felt like I didn’t have the qualifications to lead my team to be successful. Throughout this year, I have been watching what PMs in projects I have worked do and learned from what went well and what didn’t. Some of the biggest things I saw that went well were: delegating tasks, letting other people contribute, and guiding the team in the right direction. Some of the things I noticed that didn’t go well were: taking complete control, not letting others do work, and letting each team member pick what they were going to be responsible for. Along with this, I also got to practice pming in some smaller projects and parts of projects. I feel ready now to go into the new year and lead some teams!

Struggles

Burnout

One of the things I struggled with this year was burnout. I worked hard all year and especially pushed myself through March, April, and May, so by the time summer came around I was done. I no longer wanted to work on the things I usually enjoy doing. Everything felt like it was a task.

I think it is really easy to push yourself to work harder without thinking about the consequences because all you are thinking about is the end goal. As easy as it is, it is also important to remember to take a break. Although I did work on some projects during the summer, I also spent a lot of time recovering. I learned that it is okay to take a break. When I stopped, I wasn’t put years behind and I didn’t lose out on a ton of opportunities because other people were taking a break.

Being able to take a break meant that I could come into the second half of the year better than ever and do more!

Finding a Balance

Another thing I struggled with this year was finding a balance between school, projects, and family/friends. School was something that I did not want to do, and as a result, I would spend my time not doing anything because I was angry about it. This didn’t work at all because I wasn’t doing the things I wanted to do or the things I had to do.

This year, school work definitely picked up for me, which meant less time to work on my projects. At first, as I mentioned above, I struggled with this, fighting against the inevitable. Eventually, though I realized that I could do both if I planned properly. Sometimes being able to balance school and my projects meant not getting straight A+s and not being the first one to turn things in. I had to think about what was most important to me and prioritize based on that.

I also struggled with balancing my family and friends and my projects. On the weekends, I wanted to spend time working on my projects, but I also wanted to be with my family. As I have learned throughout the year, relationships with people are what can get you through tough times, and I wanted to keep those relationships up. I realized that, again, with proper planning, I could do both. I might spend all day Saturday working on my projects, even if it meant not being with my family, and then spend Sunday with them. Things like breakfast and lunch also helped me spend more time with them.

Although I am better at balancing all the things in my life, I am still learning how to improve at it, so I can get the most out of my life and enjoy it.

Sticking with Things

Between the various projects I worked on, one common theme I found myself facing was that I would leave a project if it became too difficult or boring. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I would look back and wonder what happened to that project.

Sometimes it is okay to leave an idea or project if it doesn’t make sense to continue, but I would leave projects that still had potential. I think when I would see a challenge, I would work it super hard one way, and then lose the motivation to work on it. I need to start looking at problems in a different way.

Another issue I faced with sticking with things is that when other people start to give up on a project, I do as well. For example, earlier this year I was working with a startup on a small media project, and when they started to lose interest in it, I did as well. A way I have by trying to combat this is by realizing that sometimes, people backing away from a project means that I have the opportunity to step up. I need to take the initiative to take over if other people are unable to.

In 2022, one of my goals is to stick with things more. I want to choose a project and stay with it (if it makes sense) until the end.

What I Learned

It’s Okay to Take a Break

If I could choose one takeaway I had for the entire year that I thought was the most important, it would be this one. As important as it is to work hard and develop new skills, none of it matters if you are too burnt out to put them to use. Taking a break doesn’t put you behind, but not taking one can. As Franklin Roosevelt says:

“I do not want to get into the position of not being able to see the forest because of the thickness of the trees.”

I started out the year fully focused on my development. My goals involved working hard and making progress. Although I did achieve these goals, I realized they weren’t as important as my physical and mental health. Sometimes it is necessary to put other things behind if it means that it will help you.

When I did take a break, I noticed I was more productive than before. I could spend longer periods of time working because my mind felt clearer. Something as simple as taking 1 day off a week could increase my productivity by 10-fold.

Sharing is Caring

I know it sounds cliche, but sharing is crucial in building a successful team. When I talk about sharing, I don’t mean your toys, but your responsibility and leadership. This year, I worked on several projects where there was a fight for power- who would be in charge. If one person takes all the responsibility, then they burn out and the project doesn’t get done. If no one takes responsibility, the project also doesn’t get done.

On a month-long project, I was working on, our team started out really well, but it went downhill quickly. Our first problem was that we didn’t designate a PM (project manager). As I quickly learned, a PM is crucial to keep a team together and delegate responsibility, but they are not someone who completely takes over a project.

About halfway through the project, we realized we were struggling, which is when we delegated our PM. From here I expected things to get better, but we did not clarify what it meant to be a PM, and they took over. This led to our PM taking over all the work, and left the rest of us confused about our role. By the end, our project was not near where it needed to be, and we spent a week pulling late nights trying to catch up on what we had missed.

During a hackathon, I had the opposite experience, where I learned what a good PM looks like. We started our team meeting by delegating a PM, someone who could split up our responsibilities and guide us, without taking on all the work or doing nothing. With each of us knowing exactly what needed to be done, we got our work done with plenty of time to collaborate and make changes as a group. Our project turned out way better than expected, and we had fun well doing it.

From these experiences I learned that being a PM does not mean that you have to do all the work or boss everyone around; it means that you split up responsibilities and help your team in the right direction. Also, sharing your responsibilities, especially if you are working in an area that you don’t fully understand, helps the team and the project move along, and helps you enjoy it more.

Fall in Love with the Problem

When working on my projects, I would get discouraged because I hit a roadblock. Sometimes, I wanted to give up because it just would not work the way I wanted it to work. The one thing that always kept me going was the problem I was trying to solve. Thinking about the people you are trying to help and how you are going to change the world makes you remember that if it was easy, it wouldn’t be a problem. If you don’t fight this challenge, who will?

The other thing that I learned about falling in love with the problem is that it gives you flexibility in what you want to do. There are million different ways to solve one problem. If one idea doesn’t work out, you can always switch your focus and work it from another angle.

It’s Okay to Change Ideas

Sometimes the idea you are working on doesn’t work out. When I started out this year, I thought that once I picked an idea that was the idea I was going with. When I actually tried this though, I ran into some problems.

1. Some ideas don’t make sense to pursue. I would do research and talk to experts, and all signs pointed that this idea might not be worth pursuing. Maybe the idea was too ambitious, or maybe it wasn’t really improving on the status quo. If you are stuck on an idea though, you can’t improve and your project will amount to nothing. It is better to switch than to stay stuck with the problem.
2. Sometimes when you are researching, you find a better idea. When you’re looking at the original idea, sometimes you find something that leads you on another track. It might be similar or completely different, but sometimes it is more interesting than the original idea you had.

Being flexible means that I can work on the idea that I think makes the most sense. If I like the idea, I am more likely to want to work on it. I will spend more time and effort making it work. It is okay to change an idea because it is not about the speed of progress, but the quality of work.

Goals for 2021

• Build out my project 🛠: Throughout the second half of 2021, I have been working on an idea involving detecting various contaminants in water. In 2022, I want to write out a proposal and start to build a prototype.
• Develop personal relationships👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏻: In 2022, I want to focus on surrounding myself with people who will help me grow and develop. I am going to focus on devoting time to spend with my friends and family, in order to further my relationships with them.
• Build my personal brand 💻: This year, I am going to focus on expanding my personal brand. To do this, I am going to start Tweeting again (#buildinpublic), as well as revamp my personal website. My intention behind this is to figure out who I am and build credibility for myself.
• Focus on my health 💪: One of my biggest takeaways this year was it is okay to take a break, and I want to emphasize that in 2022! In terms of my physical health, I want to make it a priority to work out 3–5 days/week. For my mental health, I want to start journaling and meditation.
• Be intentional with my time ⏰: In 2021, I felt like I spent a lot of time, wasting my time. I wasn’t doing the things I wanted to be doing, or the things I needed to be doing. In 2022, I want to focus on consuming media that is good for me, spending time with the people I care about and making progress. 2022 is going to be about making the moments count.

Goodbye, 2021! 2022 here I come! 🎉