known as @hacdias
In a few weeks I will be turning 25 years old. That’s an interesting number: it’s a quarter of a century, and it also feels like a pivotal moment in one’s life: the middle of one’s third decade, now closer to the beginning of the fourth decade than the end of the second decade. Instead of having a mid-life crisis, I decided to reflect a bit on the idea of getting older, but more importantly belonging.
Vandaag heb ik de uitslag van mijn Staatsexamen Nederlands als tweede taal ontvangen en ik ben geslaagd! Ik heb officieel Nederlands niveau B2. Volgens de ERK (Europees Referentiekader) ben ik nu een “onafhankelijke taalgebruiker”.
Today is the 12th of July. For most people, this date doesn’t say much, but it marks the anniversary of this website, counting from the first ever blog post I wrote here. And… that was ten years ago, in 2014. Yes, gentle reader, this website is now officially a decade old!
Two months ago I announced I was leaving my previous job, a completely remote position, for a on-site position. This is my first on-site position, since my previous job was also my first and only job until now. It’s been now a bit more than a month, and I have some thoughts I would like to share.
After almost 7 years working on projects surrounding IPFS, the InterPlanetary File System, I am now saying goodbye. It’s been an incredible journey at Protocol Labs, and more recently at the Interplanetary Shipyard. However, I feel like it’s finally time for a change for me.
The title of this post is just a question I added to my impossible list back in September 2022. It has been sitting there since. After making a little cleanup to the page today, I thought: I really want to develop this feeling a bit more, and explain it better, as well as how I feel in this moment regarding my plans for “living abroad”.
Due to all the restructuring that has been happening at work, I am supposedly going to be working at a different company from next Monday on. The team will still be working on the same projects, albeit with more to choose our own direction. This has also given me time to reflect and think about what I want to learn and do next.
In May 2016, I decided to start taking a daily selfie for the next following years. A daily selfie of my life, a lifie. At the time, I did not really think about for how long I would want to do this. Sometimes I thought about stopping it, sometimes I thought about making a video. However, that time never came, until now.
I have just compiled around 7 years worth of pictures, taken daily. Yes, there are days missing, there are even 1 or 2 months missing at some point. Some pictures also do not perfectly match the frame. Nevertheless, it is quite crazy to see how I have changed over the past 6 years.
Below, you can see the video. This video started in my teenage years and ends as a young adult. Among everything else, you will be able to see 3 different pairs of glasses, 5 different places where I lived, many haircuts, as well as the time where I still wore braces.
It is quite crazy. Am I going to keep taking daily pictures? I don’t know. It doesn’t give me a lot of work, takes a few seconds every day. Chances are that I will. But I still have yet to decide.
Learning a new language is though. It is certainly easier for some than for others and there are countless of variables that will change your experience. For the past three years, I have been learning Dutch, which has been quite of a rollercoaster.
My first full year mark working full time just passed by, and so did my first year working full time remotely. Since this is my first actual job, I can’t really compare it with working in-person. Nevertheless, I want to share my experience, as well as some of the things I think might be the pros and the cons.
A few days ago I started reading this book by Erin Meyer, The Culture Map. And, today, I finished it. Considering I don’t read many non-fiction books, I was quite surprised to see how much this book captivated my attention.
