A Year in Review — 2021

Yes, I know I’m rather late as it’s practically February 2022, but time flies, right? I haven’t written a yearly reflection yet, at least not formally, but this past year was very important for me and I want to share some of my thoughts around it. I’m trying to give more structure to my life, and part of that entails organizing some of my thinking into reflections. More to come on that later, hopefully.

So 2021 was really crazy. I can certainly talk about some of the global events that happened, but those have already been covered much better than I ever could, and, anyways, everyone already knows a lot about our dear friend COVID, right? These last 12 months have been specifically meaningful for me because:

• I graduated from University, marking the end of my formal academic journey (for now)
• I got hired at my first full-time job (now we’re in the adult world)
• I bought my first house (I’m writing from there now, and I still can’t believe it)
• I bought my first car (she’s a beauty)
• I got engaged to my now fiancée (she’s as beautiful as the car)
• I got my first tattoo with my three brothers (we’re now bros for life)

Technically the last two happened in 2022, but they were planned in 2021 so I will include them in this thought dump.

The Academy Of Knowledge

University has been a hell of a journey. I’m using the term “hell” both as an exclamation, but really, also literally. I had some of the best times of my life, and I also had some pretty bad lows — let’s start at the beginning.

In my last years of High School I was looking at what to do with my life, because you know, at 17 is when we’re supposed to decide that according to society. Thankfully it all turned out well in the end, but at the time I was trying to find the best mix between what I was good at, what I liked, and what society liked so that I could also make a living. I loved innovation and creating something for the world, and this was ultimately the main driver that fueled my search.

I grew up looking up at my dad for his success in his career, although not specifically because of his job, as I’m only now realizing how truly impactful it is to represent your country as an Ambassador. I was impressed by the knowledge he had of the world and the (positive) impact he had on others. My mom was just as important for my growth and development and without her, I also wouldn’t be where I am now (ti voglio bene mamma ❤).

Long story short, I somehow grew up wanting to achieve great things, and thankfully I was willing to put in the effort to make it happen. So I applied to two universities in Canada. I got offered a seat at both and ended up pursuing Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. I was stoked. It was a dream come true.

Without diving too deep here, because I most definitely could, my experience was a bit of a rollercoaster. In my first year I got beaten up pretty badly, and the wounds hurt even more because I fell from a very high stool, which I then realized was not that high after all. Going from a big fish in a small pond, to a little plankton in a massive ocean was, well…traumatic let’s say. And so it goes that I failed my first exam and had to repeat a course.

For those of you that have gone through a significant moment of failure in your life, specifically in a relatively safe environment such as in school, you know how this isn’t really all that bad. Yet, for those that haven’t, and before I failed I was also part of this group, let me tell you it’s a hard medicine to swallow. I like to make the most of life, since we were only given one from whoever wrote the Human class (man, they could really change the code to give us more than one), so I think of it as an important life experience, which, truly, it was.

After my fight in first year, for better or for worse, the fighting didn’t stop. In my second year I also got beat up pretty badly but thanks to the help of amazing people (my roommates and some of my best friends) I didn’t fail any courses and still managed to learn a few interesting things.

The CS program at UW is great because after two years of insanely hard courses, your second half is totally customizable with electives. The timing was really on point because I was then also starting to learn what I liked and what I didn’t. So third year went definitely better, as I focused more on HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) and the implications of technology, and fourth year was even more enjoyable.

The pandemic hit. I could end my thought there as it probably already conveys enough, but in my case, I had a rather uncommon experience based on what my peers have been telling me. Thanks to literally everything becoming remote, I was able to create a schedule that worked very well for me and get more done in less. During this time I further grew my passion for the implications of technology, one being the creation of a Smart City, which is now one of my greatest ambitions in the one life determined by our (genetic) code.

So then I graduated, practically from my small (but of course still cozy) bedroom in my student housing apartment, after I finished my last exam ever. I never got amazing grades in University, and definitely no 100s like some of my friends (Neel, I’m thinking of you), yet as a funny coincidence that last exam that I “wrote” gave me a 100 in Social Psychology. Ha, take that UW!

Graduating felt great, and I mean it, and there’s so much more that happened in those 5 years, yet the next step in my mind was to get a job, and that also has its story.

The Professional Journey

Having a job that I liked was one of my dreams since being a kid. I know, I was weird growing up, and in many ways, I still am. But I’m proud of it, so it’s all good.

Thanks to UW, I was able to have 6 internships throughout my program, and I can say that it was one of the best parts of my personal and professional formation. Being able to apply my knowledge in a real-world setting, engaging with smart coworkers, while also making some dough (I need to maintain my street rep) is something I’m still grateful for today.

I started in QA at a startup. I was hired to look for defects in a new site we were building, but the experience ended up giving me much more than that. I started to learn how companies work and how to interact in a professional setting. I also realized how awesome it is to have a company give you free food. As an intern it probably made me happier than it should have, but I loved those cereal bowls and algae chips and it helped me look forwards to work.

My following three positions were as a software developer, and I got to dabble with some full-stack coding (from the database to the user interface), embedded programming (the interaction between software and hardware), machine learning (just using others’ libraries, but still very cool to implement), and finally mobile (you know what this is). From the work I was doing to the companies I was in, I was lucky to always have a good time and learn an immense amount.

Specifically in my last developer internship, I learned that wasn’t what I wanted to continue doing. I was at a startup and I had the chance to work with other teams that dealt with design, marketing, sales, strategy… After gaining that exposure I realized that I wanted to make a change and try a different role. Due to my ambition, I always wanted to have more responsibility and oversee projects from all angles and the role of a Product Manager was something I had always wanted to eventually do. It turned out I could try it as an intern.

I was actually quite scared to steer away from coding since that’s what 99% of my peers were doing and I didn’t know if the PM role would fit me. Yet for some reason it just felt right, so I gave it a shot. Luck (in a sense) was once more by my side and I was able to get a PM role on a very exciting project. Without getting into details (as that deserves a separate article), I loved it. I enjoyed it so much that it’s what I’m doing now.

I then completed my last two internships as a PM, with my last one being at Cisco. The work I was doing with Meraki was highly engaging and exciting, as we were building innovative IoT products, trying to enter a relatively new industry. By the end, I was extremely happy to have received a great offer to continue my work with the team after graduation, and then I was extremely sad to realize I couldn’t accept it because I would have had to move to San Francisco. Now, I have nothing wrong with SF, but I do love Canada, and I mean, I’m still working towards my citizenship, you know eh?

Thanking once more the pandemic for having allowed remote work, after frantically looking for jobs on every platform you can think of, I ended up getting a PM role in the cybersecurity branch of Cisco. That is what currently fills up my Monday to Friday, and I couldn’t be happier. It was a long journey to get to the present day, and in the end it was a fantastic achievement and I’m even more excited to see where it will lead to.

A Place To Call Home

So we can get the car out of the way first since it was an event pretty well contained within itself. After graduating and getting a job, my girlfriend and I wanted to move in together and start to share more aspects of our lives. With that decision made, we went ahead and looked for a car that would help us get to that level of independence. Despite the supply shortage we had luck (once again playing a role) on our side and got the last model of the new Nissan Rogue.

Now, in my ideal society car ownership isn’t as much of a requirement as it currently still is. I say that because cars aren’t used for most of their lifespan. Sure, you need it to go to work, get groceries, see friends, do trips, bring your kids to their evening practice… but all those events account for a relatively small percentage of time when compared to how much time a car spends sitting in the garage. I don’t like waste (if you know me, you know that) and to me it’s a waste of resources to have a car idle for so much, hence why I think car sharing is the most efficient use of such a resource. With that said, I still couldn’t help to feel amazing driving the new car around and knowing it wasn’t a rental anymore, but my very own. Okay — end side note.

Even though I’m talking about the car first, buying the house really came beforehand in chronological order. The house was a big, big move, for a few reasons.

First off, my background, and life in general, played a key role in that decision. Due to my dad’s job (oh how many times I started sentences like this in my life) I traveled the world growing up. Two weeks after I was born in Padua, Italy, my parents moved back to Lima, Peru, where my dad was working at the time. Since then, every 4 years my dad would get posted to a new location, and such is how I lived until I went to University.

I have to admit that moving was always very tiring, mainly from the emotional perspective. Having to change houses, school, language and most of all friends, was not something I easily welcomed. Only now, after having grown up, matured (a little), and being past that phase, I can really understand how helpful it was to me. Beyond seeing the beauty of the world in all of its colors, shapes and forms, I really learned how to adapt and appreciate the Different. Those are now skills that are valuable to me like few others.

So where does the house come in? I never felt like I had a home. Even in my last years at UW I was moving every four months. Go to Waterloo to study, then Toronto for work, back to Waterloo, then take a flight to SF and stay for four months… It was fun, and I loved to travel, don’t get me wrong, but my need for somewhere to call home slowly grew stronger and louder. I needed a place where I could put my toothbrush beside the sink and not in a pouch in my suitcase.

Going back to my career, my choice to enter the so-called tech industry indeed turned out to be beneficial. I have been working since I was 18, and combining good salaries with lasting life habits, and some skill and luck (probably a lot) with investments, my girlfriend and I were able to put a downpayment to buy a house. The search was tedious, draining and incredibly stressful, causing us to lose a bit of hope after every offer that got turned down. Yet, after persisting like a woodpecker going back and forth on those defensless trees, we won a bidding war and are now living in a beautiful house that we get to truly call our own, every morning as we wake up. A home for us.

A Sunset On The Burj

So of course, after having shared so many aspects of our lives together, I needed, and wanted, to seal the deal on a last item in my checklist. I didn’t actually have a list, but getting engaged after four amazing years together was the next natural step.

We had planned to go see my family in the UAE for a month over New Year’s break and, against my girlfriend’s wishes, I said to her that unfortunately it wouldn’t be possible for the engagement to happen. You know, I told her, we just bought a house and a car and we need to be wise over the next few months regarding our finances, blah blah blah. I just needed some excuses and those were pretty valid.

I can honestly say now that I was very nervous throughout the whole process. From getting the ring to hiding it until our trip, transporting it on a flight, planning the actual event…whenever I would think of it my heart skipped a few beats, guaranteed. I was mainly concerned with the diamond being found since someone likes to put her hands everywhere to ensure it’s all clean and organized. Thankfully, the surprise wasn’t ruined.

After planning and thinking at many options for where I could propose in the UAE, I was able to get access to the helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab. It was, and still is, unreal to me that we got that opportunity. As we approached the hotel, which I portrayed like a normal tour during our stay in Dubai, and I saw the big sail from the street, my heart skipped multiple beats. The muscle kept on getting abused by my mental state while we were progressing throughout the tour until I felt it popping out of my shirt once we got to the helipad.

Even though I imagined the moment multiple times over, playing it in my mind under many different angles, actually being there was an unparalleled feeling. The weather cleared up and we had a breathtaking view of the skyscrapers and the ocean, my fiancée looked beautiful (no doubts there), and I was pretty much on Cloud 9. I mean, I actually was very high up and close to the clouds…

And so our trip continued. We enjoyed the additional 40 degrees compared to Canada and spent time with my family. Seeing them twice a year is still hard, yet again, people adapt. My brothers and I had the idea to get a tattoo for ourselves, something that would be meaningful to us. Since we’re now all apart, living our own lives, we wanted to keep something to commemorate our brotherhood. So we decided on CARD, the initials of our names, stamped on our left wrist. And with that, I ended up getting my first, and probably not last, tattoo.

Back To The Present

I’m now back in Canada, settling in, and trying to get some thoughts together. I am in a really good place, and I’m happy about it, but for better or for worse it’s hard to feel satiated. My stomach is like that, and I suppose my mind too.

I have plans for the near future, including writing a book, making some beats, starting to draw, getting back to a podcast, and planning some trips around the world. I’m still planning to build a Smart City, but that’s a multi-decade plan. I want to dive deeper into consciousness and its future, thinking about what it means to be human and how emotions shape our perception of reality.

The past has been amazing, the present is full of life, and the future is bright and exciting. Cheers not only to a new year (I know I’m late for that), but to a next step, of indefinite duration.