Life – Page 11 – The Renegade Coder

Welcome back to The Renegade Coder and happy new year! It's 2018, and I'm stepping into my second (third?) year as a blogger. Hopefully everyone is still along for the ride. In this edition of the update, I want to talk about my plans for the upcoming year. 2017: A Year in Review If you stuck around last year, then you know that I spent much of my time trying to develop and polish my website. In one year, I wrote up two Java series, and I even started a Python series. I had a ton of fun working through all the kinks in those lessons. Out of my Java series grew a store which brought us a handful of PDFs and three tiers of tutoring and mentorship. All that hard work earned me a grand total of $3, and I couldn't be happier about it. In fact, I'm still hyped about my first sale. I hope I can double those sales this year. Outside of the coding world, a ton happened. I got engaged, completed a TEFL course, finished A-Course, applied to 12 PhD programs, became a minimalist, and explored my intellectual side. I'm sure a bunch more happened, and I'll edit those in as I remember. 2018: The Year of Insanity While 2017 was a year of growth and development for me, 2018 is going to be all about making changes. To me, The Renegade Coder brand never really made sense. What makes me a renegade? I think 2018 will prove it. For starters, I'm looking to quit my conventional job and kick off the digital nomad life with an online TEFL job. From there, I plan to get married and move to another country. That's when the true renegade lifestyle will begin. As a result, I think I'm going to open up a travel section of the blog. The new website will be all about the minimalist digital nomad lifestyle which runs contrary to the normal coding life. I can't sit still and work a regular 9-5. I have to be on the move. To ring in this new lifestyle, here's just a short list of the changes I anticipate over the next year: Eloping (eh, more like a private ceremony - 12 people max)Changing my last nameQuitting my engineering desk jobPicking up a light online TEFL jobThrowing a casual elopement partyGoing on a European honeymoonMoving abroad To some, this may seem pretty casual. To most, this is probably insane. I couldn't be more excited. Resolutions for the New Year This new year, I haven't really though about resolutions. That's probably because I don't find myself bound by the arbitrary year-to-year timeline. However, resolutions can be pretty fun, so I figured I'd draft up a list: Learn a new language (I've been tackling Spanish for ages, but I still don't feel comfortable with it)Get back into an exercise routine (I was in the best shape of my life in fall of 2014)Reduce clutter and practice minimalismTackle project 333Create the life I want to live In many ways, these five points are just related to the life I'm trying to create for the next year. I'm just hoping I can carry these new ideas into the future indefinitely. Song of the Week I'm quite certain I've shared this already, but why not open the new year with something beautiful. Here's a Your Lie in April medley by LilyPichu: https://youtu.be/j1Xf7AxO2a0 As always, here's a link to get a copy of a similar medley. Coming Soon to The Renegade Coder! I think I've spent much of this update sharing my plans for the year, but I'll reiterate a few. Over the next year, I plan to write more about what makes me a renegade. That'll include a series about quitting my job as well as several blog posts about travel. After all, I want to use this as a platform for mentorship as much as tutoring. If there's anything you want to see this year, let me know!