2024 Reflection, 2025 Rebirth

It’s been over a year since the last time I wrote a post on here. Partially, due to lack of inspiration but mostly due to being physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I landed my current role last February, started getting my life back on track, was in language school, traveled with my sister, did a lightning talk at Ladies that UX, learned that I needed to have major surgery again, joined an angel investor fund, and began participating in more philanthropic endeavors. 2024 was a doozy and to some extent it still feels like a fever dream. To be honest, looking back on my previous blog posts from 2021 to 2023, they feel like a distant memory. I grew a lot as a designer and started to really learn who I am outside of building my career. I needed the time to step away from that and focus on me. When your doctors tell you that you were dying and didn’t know, the focus on your career becomes of very little importance to you.

Now that I’ve healed from it, I have had some time to think of how I want this next phase of my life to look. Will it be back focused on career progression in the traditional sense? No. Absolutely not. I enjoy my career but to be the kind of designer I want to be requires exploring other facets of my life more. However, I will still talk about design especially because I work on government projects now and navigating public sector is very different from private.

I have a few goals I want to reach this year such as:

  1. being more consistent with posting on here

  2. become more active on LinkedIn

  3. expand my knowledge in the Angel Investor sector

  4. get involved in more charities and get out the house more

  5. get back into language school( maybe get a tutor to practice speaking with)

  6. work my way through the Go Hack Yourself book

  7. learn a new design skill

  8. maybe get a cert or license in something this year ( I’m keeping the specifics kinda quiet for now)

    To keep myself accountable when it comes to sharing updates, I will make one post a month on here. So here’s to a hopeful 2025! See you next month!

    -Nita

Anita Evans