High and Low is one of those life experiences that everyone, well I do have to experience as this is my first time writing one publicly I felt that it had to be the best, and it was also confusing on what I should share and what I should not share as there is a very thin line between privacy and sharing to help others.
I want to thank my loyal and kind readers who return to Novellisteer. Without you, this blog wouldn’t be this positive, experimental, and inspirational place it is becoming. I appreciate your commitment and pledge to keep this platform as peaceful, honest, fun, and informative as I had intended.
High and Low of The Year 2021
Looking at 2021 and all that happened this year, one word I echo to myself is “What the hell happen”.
2021 started with me being excited and hopeful about many areas of my life–career growth, financial growth, spiritual growth, personal growth, mental-health improvement, social improvement, and more.
Honestly, I don’t know what am really ending 2021 with, a part of me knows that I did achieve something yet I can not figure out what exactly without checking my morning page or journal.
Yet I end the year 2021 with career wins, personal wins, some good mental-health improvement, ups and downs with my spiritual life, a bit of social-life progress and health challenges.
Words for the Year 2020
My best words and phrases of the year 2020 were: Deciding, taking it slow, writing everything down, perseverance, letting go, consistency, just being, candid, learning, in due time, laughing, loving, communicating, decluttering, fun, happiness.
The worst words and phrases of the year 2020 for me were: fighting, regret, waste of time, not tracking, recurrence of same issues, mental loops, and uncertainty.
High and Low of Lesson Learned
I have this belief that everything is always learnable, while this might appear simple yet it is super complex, challenging and draining as a multi being, imagine having an interest in a skill today the next day you are bored of it. Yup, that frequently happens to me.
I learned that I’m a jack of all trades, the hard way and this is always leaving with the thought, “that I’m never good enough” not for myself but working for someone else.
What I did was to write a biography of myself and I found out quite a lot, now whenever I’m struggling with what to do, I check back on that article.
One of the most challenging things in my life is having the money to fund my interests, imagine if I could just pay someone or outsource most of the tasks that I’m doing life would have been a bit easier for me.
Previously I was always screaming and crying about how I do not have any friend that I could cry on but almost at the end of 2021, I found myself being intentional about who I surround myself with.
The most significant addition in 2021 was joining a Creative Africa Women Accountability Group where I got to meet positive humans that allow me to ask questions and be myself.
While I still have not seen the community I want when it comes to my interest in Tech, I’m still searching and slowly building one that would work for me.
The most important lesson is that in all you do, have people that know who they are; they’ll help you stand tall. There’s nothing that feels better than having a community that you can connect to, one that understands how difficult it is to have multiple interests and limited resources.
The High of 2021
- Went self host for the Novellisteer brand
- Start a podcast for Novellisteer where i got to talk about going through life as an Africa multi being
- Passed my first semester exam not the best but it could had been worst.
- Bought a new laptop thanks to my parent contribution.
- Start investing in mutual fund on cowrywise, you can use my referral code “NAFISLLO”
- Went back to twitter for Novellisteer after some deep soul searching.
- Start planing an editorial calender for Novellisteer using Airtable.
- I applied for a scholarship and i was selected to learn machine learning on Datacamp.
The Low of 2021
- Apply to cybersecurity position without no rejection letter just plain odd ghosting.
- Did not start my thesis nor publish an academic publication.#
- Fail to start a YouTube channel for Novellisteer.
- Did not design any stationary product for Novellisteer.
- Could not gain clarity on deciding a cybersecurity path.
- Was not able to start my other ideas.
- My Novellisteer instagram game is something to be ashamed about.
- Improved my skill in Asana and Notion
- Start using Notion to plan but found out that i’m a pen and paper girl all the way.
Moving Forward In 2022
In all honesty, I want many things for 2022 and my main aim in 2022 is to be intentional and actively pursue what I want, as I have always been someone obsessed with planning.
My word for 2022: Consistency, building in public, sharing, intentional planning, exploring, experimenting, body care, supplement, loving and opportunity.
May 2022 be full of surprises too.