Looking back

The days around Christmas are the perfect period to reflect alone on the year that just went by. As always the time flies really quickly. As a first thought, it seems I haven’t done anything the last 365 days. But with a bit more reflection I was able to do the following things.

What happened in 2018

• Finished last university exam and graduated. I had struggled to pass the last exam for my bachelor degree in Automation Engineering. The main problem came from not being able to focus 100% of my time and attention to studing and doing exercising due to my committment to the Startup. Finally I graduated in March.
• Went to Dubai for a fair. We were invited to showcase Bolt at a "luxury" fair in March in the United Emirates. This was an opportunity to travel to a place I've never been but business-wise in the end was a waste of time and money.
• Built a camper from an old van. In april I have purchased an old Volkswagen Transporter and started to convert in a camper van. The works finished just in time for the summer holiday. We used the van to go camping to Croatia.
• Took a step back from my startup. Decided that I cannot continue work full time in my startup was really a though decision. In September I started looking for jobs near Zurich to be closer to my girlfriend and finally do a work outside my startup.
• Shortly after sending cv to a dozen of companies I found a job in Switzerland in a big automotive company as a Software Engineer trainee.
• In the end of October I have moved to a new country, living alone for some months. Started working

Plans for 2019

Fitness

Go to the gym regularly, 2 times a week, so the target is 100 times in a year. I will be using the app Tally to track how many times I went to the gym. I also would like to try something a bit more competitive like a small race. I think this can be fun and a source of motivation to train regularly. I would like to try one of the following competition: running, bike or triathlon.

Travel

The target is to travel for at least one month in the year. The best of course would be to travel for one month continusly, but I can still accept to travel for 1-2 weeks every time. I will have a bit of time to travel in April/May. My dream destinations are all within Asia:

• Japan
• Bali
• Thailand
• Vietnam

Languages

Learn basic German. Since I'm living in the german speaking part of Switzerland it's really helpful to know some words. Even though almost everyone can understand english, there are always some people who refuse to do it. The target is to get to a basic level in a conversation, for example in a resturant. I'm planning to study a bit everyday. At first using Duolingo. Duolingo is nice because it let you learn a basic set of vocavulary withou effort.

Work

Find a job as a Software Engineer after my contract as trainee expires. Even thought I already received compliments for my work, the company is not able to hire new people so I should find something else.

Learning and Communication

Another thing I want to make consisently is reading and sharing what I learn through this blog and Twitter. And share pictures on Instagram. Beign an introvert person, this is something I struggle a lot, but in the digital world you need to have an online presence.