🌟 #DEVImpact2023 Reflections
Tags: devimpact2023, devjournal, webdev, writing
Published: 2023-12-29 22:48:22

From getting answers for pain I'd struggled with all my life to starting a new job in November - my 2023 has been a bit of a roller coaster.

## Proud Moments

### January/February

This time last year I had just started down the path to an [EDS](https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/what-is-eds/) diagnosis. It took me about six months to get diagnosed while simultaneously starting treatment. Six months is a very fast diagnosis and I have a brilliant care team to thank. However, treatment involved an overwhelming number of doctors appointments and daily full-body physical therapy. Just getting a handle on the logistics of all that was a success.

### March

Like [We've Been Here Since the Beginning](https://dev.to/abbeyperini/weve-been-here-since-the-beginning-2nnp) in 2022, I was honored by the reception of [8 Ways to Support Women Developers](https://dev.to/abbeyperini/8-ways-to-support-women-developers-55lf). I was very proud of myself for channeling my frustration at ongoing harassment into something positive.

### April

I celebrated hitting 4,000 followers on DEV. Little did I know, I'd be approaching 9,000 in December.

### May

I gave my first in-person tech talk at a [Modern Web Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/modernwebatl/). I've given the talk a few more times since then, and it's become the first talk I'm comfortable giving. Most importantly to me, it's given confidence to people struggling with making their perfectly functional apps look ok.

I surpassed 200,000 total post views on DEV.

I finally made some progress on my digital garden at [abbeyperini.com](https://abbeyperini.com).

### June

I attended RenderATL. I had a blast with friends old and new. I even brought out my Bombshell Batwoman costume. The moment I stepped out of the Uber and no one else in line was in costume was nerve-wracking. Reintroducing myself to everyone I had met while wearing a wig also took confidence!

![a selfie Abbey in a red wig and black baseball hat with a red bat and a red baseball-themed dress carrying a baseball bat](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/90y9emar0pyejp4fhtme.jpg)

### July 

I surpassed 10,000 post views on Hashnode!

A number of people reached out to tell me that my [Coding and ADHD series](https://dev.to/abbeyperini/series/18325) from 2022 had changed their lives. For some, this meant getting an official diagnosis. I am always overjoyed when I find out my writing had real-life positive impact.

### August/September

After some well-earned rest and relaxation, I continued working on my digital garden. As part of making images for the site, I made stickers! You can purchase them in my [Printify store](https://abbey-perinis-stickers.printify.me/products).

### October

I visited Mississippi for the first time and gave my first tech conference talk at [MagnoliaJS](https://www.magnoliajs.com/). We discovered Spindrift-based motivation really works on me. Then, my friends got me to give a talk at [Connect.Tech](https://2023.connect.tech/) the next week. The second one really helped with my public speaking anxiety.

I won the day one MagnoliaJS costume contest with a Barbie costume I sewed and crocheted.

![Abbey taking a mirror selfie in a pink gingham dress with crocheted jewelry](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/hr4fdkag3o55im0p0xa3.jpg)

With the same costume, I also won the [DEV costume contest](https://dev.to/devteam/coding-in-costume-join-our-halloween-costume-contest-3dg1)!

### November

I started a new job! So far, it's been a great fit. I've now worked in Angular, React, and Vue - the JS Framework hat trick. Let's not talk about how it was AngularJS 2013, the original.

### December 

I was delighted to find out [my articles had been featured the most times](https://dev.to/devteam/top-7s-top-authors-of-the-year-120m) in the weekly Top 7 in 2023!

## Brilliant Fails

I started an American Sign Language class in January and promptly overwhelmed myself with notecards and the aforementioned doctors appointments. I start the same class for a second time next week.

I didn't make as much progress on my digital garden as I would like. A lot of times this year, it felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. It took reassessing what I find fun about coding to get the progress that I did. I still feel it has a long way to go, but using HTML custom components instead of a framework has surprisingly been relevant to work I get paid for.

Starting a new job in November with all the American holidays has been overwhelming. Luckily, I was able to embrace taking it one day at a time and my new boss has been holding me accountable for taking breaks.

## DEV Contributions

One of my goals for 2023 was to be more consistent with content creation. Including this one, I succeeded at writing one blog per month this year!

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/tldr-commonjs-vs-esm-47dk %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/from-research-to-writing-reference-material-2ao9 %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/8-ways-to-support-women-developers-55lf %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/dark-mode-toggle-and-prefers-color-scheme-4f3m %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/from-idea-to-design-for-non-designers-m6d %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/live-regions-in-react-4dmd %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/nodeiterator-and-treewalker-web-apis-278p %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/getting-started-in-a-new-codebase-e7b %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/how-i-got-feedback-after-every-tech-interview-2ig4 %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/cognitive-load-and-your-development-environment-2nc3 %}

{% embed https://dev.to/abbeyperini/12-tips-for-attending-a-tech-conference-14mp %}

## Future Goals 

1. Write some blogs about learning Vue.
2. Finally finish that digital garden dark mode toggle.
3. Deploy the new version of Knitworthy that doesn't use the Ravelry API.
4. Get the design for a chronic illness symptom tracking app out of my head and written down.
5. Figure out an image compression solution for the digital garden. Netlify deprecated theirs and I want to add a page with lots of photos from conferences.

## Celebrate the Numbers 

Finally, my DEV Wrapped [courtesy of @code42cate](https://dev.to/code42cate/devto-wrapped-2023-13o)!

![2023 Abbey Perini's year in review 11 posts published. You got a total of 675 reactions on your posts. Your busiest month was January. 113 People discussed tech with you! Pretty cool, huh? Your fans spent 64 hours reading your awesome posts! Your favorite and best performing tag was #webdev! Your fans really loved this post: 8 ways to support women developers. How I got feedback after every tech interview really got people talking! It's your most commented post. 30 devs mentioned you in their comments. You're basically famous now.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gwche3uzimx9euz67vc9.png)