Year 2022: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
Published: 2022-12-31 19:04:18

When I look back at the Year 2022, I am really short of words as it proves that we should never give up on our dreams. I also understood that it is so easy to underestimate what we can do in one year. Or even how your life could be could be completely transformed in just the last 02 quarters of a year, taking you to places and making you meet with people you never thought you would happen in a decade.

Being nominated as the first ever **AWS Machine Learning Hero** in **Sub Saharan Africa** towards the 3rd quarter of this year has been the biggest blessing I received this year.

After joining the **AWS Community Builders program** for just a couple of months, I  had to leave since I became a Hero. Though it appears to be the biggest achievement, but this is not all I am grateful for in 2022. I feel like words can’t describe the psychological and emotional achievements I received in 2022 and how life would probably not be the same in the coming years.

Compared to other countries in Africa, Cameroon is at the bottom of the list in terms of technology, yet it been able to produce 02 AWS Heroes in the last 02 years. It came to confirm the fact that we all have so much potential we can always offer, no matter where we come from in this world. 

It was a great honor joining the AWS Community Builders program earlier this year, in which I met like-minded persons who taught me how to learn and how to share, and I am forever grateful for the brief moment I spent with all in the program.
I understood why most of the Heroes come from this program.

As an AWS Hero, I had the opportunity to attend re:Invent this year, in person, for the first time, which was a big also a huge life changing experience for me. One which crowned all the achievements of this year and is still having impact in my life as I write this post. Those kind of experiences, which can’t fully be explained with words, especially as ‘what happens in Las Vegas only ever happens there or simply stays in Las Vegas’.

I traveled for more than 17 hours all the way from Africa to attend this massive event, with it being my first time visiting the legendary and extravagantly-loud Las Vegas. Behold, during  the keynote of Werner Vogel, Amazon’s CTO about thanking heroes for their accomplishments, I saw my profile being projected in the big screen along with 7 other heroes, which made me almost burst into tears. Again what a psychological victory and a boost
of confidence, seeing  that the little I have been doing, from my small corner, is being recognized on big screen by the Boss. Feels like a salary raise right.

Contributing as one of the experts in the **PeerTalk Expert** program, granting one-to-one interviews to amazing persons,
some of whom wanted to know about machine learning, serverless computing, and some just about how to become an AWS Hero, felt really good to be a  part other people’s lives.

Hosting the first ever **Hero-to-Hero interviews** along with other exceptionally smart hosts, created by
the big **Mark Pergola** , reminded me of how we all have our inner geniuses waiting to be activated, and the truth that diversity and synergy is what would take us all to the next level.

Meeting one of my mentors, **Kesha Williams,** for the first time, this year, and all the amazing people in-person, including the legendary **Jeff Bar** are things you can’t easily do in one year. And of course, I could not miss visiting the spot where **Tupac ,** the rapper, **** was shot in Las Vegas(more of this in my ‘how I rocked Las Vegas post’).

Now, apart from these freshly burning memories from re:Invent 2022, I am also blessed to have landed a remote **Cloud Engineering Consultant** role  at **Serverless Guru** , with amazing people and a culture I call ‘feels just like Home’. And through this I got to speak at the Sourth America’s TDC 2022 Conference, on the topic ‘**Serverless Machine Learning**’.

As for the more than 50 students I have trained through the bootcamp hosted by [www.analyticscfd.com](www.analyticscfd.com), on professional skills like data analytics, data science and machine learning, I am also grateful for the success messages I receive from them, and most especially for what they taught me as we went through the different programs.I really wish to see these students continue to build big things in 2023 and keep impacting the lives of others. I learned a lot  more while teaching, than I learned while preparing for Certifications. 

This year summarizes to me what **Steve Jobs** quote has been playing at the back of my mind, saying, ‘stay hungry, stay foolish’. We need to keep learning and keep pushing towards our dreams.

This year has not been all roses, just like life is not a bed of roses, but I am very grateful for the blessings, opportunities and friends I have made. I cannot list all who have helped and supported me throughout this year. 

Please acccept this as this post as a way to show gratitude to you all, as I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2023. I pray we all accomplish even more together next year, and in whatever you do please do **let the light shine**, as you share with the rest of the world.

**_Wish you Good Data Luck and a Happy 2023!!!_**