2013: The Year I Embraced Risk and Learned From Failure

2013 was quite a year for me. At the beginning of the year, my life was finally starting to settle down after all the excitement of getting my own place and entering the world of startups. Little did I know that 2013 would bring even more changes to my life with the opportunity to take quite a few risks, some that paid off and some that didn't. Looking back, these were the major parts of the year that stood out to me.

• I realized that it was time to move on from my startup job.

• I managed to find a remote job through Twitter, which was pretty awesome, but we ended up parting ways quickly.

  It was partly mismatched expectations on both sides but mostly I didn't realize that my last job left me rather burned out and I just didn't enjoy coding like I used to. Failing at my new job and dealing with burnout led to depression but eventually I learned so much about myself through it that my troubles turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

• I visited NYC for the first time.

  It was a spur of the moment trip. I ended up traveling alone and it was a fantastic experience.

• I got more involved in the Austin tech community.

  I helped organize Rails Girls Austin again (even gave a lightning talk this time), attended two hackathons and the Lone Star Ruby Conference. A lot of people and these experiences inspired me to get out of my rut.

• I immersed myself in all the great live music Austin has to offer.

  Highlights were meeting deadmau5, then getting invited to a private party by Bauuer (of Harlem Shake fame) at SXSW, going to Fun Fun Fun Fest for the first time, and finally getting to a chance to see Macklemore again after he made it big.

• I became an aunt again, twice!

• Having lived in Austin all my life, I seriously thought about changing things up and moving to NYC or SF.

  I interviewed with a few well-known startups in both locations and was so close to making a move.

• I joined Written.com, an early-stage startup here in Austin, at the end of June.

  This wasn't as big of a risk as moving out of state but as their first technical hire, joining them did take a little leap of faith. I can honestly say though that I'm happy I made the decision to join them. I've really enjoyed the past 6 months and definitely see a bright future ahead for all of us.

Speaking of 2014, I have a few goals in mind already:

• Blog more often.

  I do enjoy writing and I really didn't mean to let 6 months lapse between my first post and this one.

• Attend another Ruby/Rails or general web development or tech conference.

• Give a technnical talk at a user group or conference.

  After giving a lightning talk this year, I definitely want to try another lightning talk but I'm going to aim higher and go for a longer talk as well.

• Figure out ways to help get more girls interested in STEM and help women who want to be developers.

• I still like coding in Ruby but I want to learn a new programming language.

• I think 2014 may be the year I may launch my own startup.

  I've always had some ideas in my head but never had the confidence to turn them into something more. I've gained some great mentors this year and frankly, I'm tired of looking around the startup community and not seeing very many women founders.

I have a hunch that 2014 will be an even better year than 2013 turned out to be. I can't wait to see what's in store for me in the new year!