February, For Me

The end of the month is always a great opportunity for reflection. February has especially been a great month for reflecting – it’s been so exciting packed with lots of key events that brought amazing new experiences! With some changes in my life right now, I’ve also had the opportunity to find more about myself and found some things I’d like to improve on – which is always exciting (for me at least) because it will lead to positive self-development (only if you want it to, of course. Mindset is everything!)

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

  • ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ’ป I will probably have annoyed everyone around me to death about this because of talking about it so much (with no wavering of energy or excitement at all) but I attended my first conference (outside of my placement) that focused on empowering and inspiring women into careers/hobbies in technology. You can read the full hype here.
  • ๐Ÿค“ The Code First: Girls courses that I help organise and run started again this month for the Spring term. The girls in both the courses we run have been such a pleasure to be around – so full of energy and passion for learning and creating!
  • ๐Ÿ I’m teaching basics of web development and learning Python. Every Wednesday and Thursday. And I’m loving it.
  • ๐Ÿ–ฅ The opportunities I’ve recieved. More to follow ~
  • ๐Ÿ“… I’m 7 months into my placement! Where has time gone?!
  • โœจ I took part in Glow in the Dark Zumba with Hamdah for the ThisGirlCan campaign. It was ๐Ÿ”ฅ
Hamdah: “Pauline, you go so low wtf” Me: ๐Ÿ‘ to the grass

Iโ€™M HAPPY BECAUSEโ€ฆ

  • ๐Ÿ’œ WiT was amazing, truly a great experience! I encourage others to go to next year whether you’re into technology or not. I’ve met some great people and can’t wait for next year! Many thanks again to those who organised it and the amazing company – Code First and HackSheffield.
  • ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿป Getting other ladies excited of the tech scene brings me happiness โœจ
  • โ˜ I completed another month of meditation with Calm.
  • ๐Ÿ• I treated myself a lot this month. I’m growing into a more body positive person and it’s so freeing!
  • ๐ŸŒฏ Matt introduced me to some amazing burritos and now I can’t get enough. Y’all know how I feel about ๐Ÿ”ฅ burritos.
  • ๐Ÿ’– :heart-face-full-of-love-and-potential-emoji:
Sophia captured me laughing at my puns in class ๐Ÿ˜…

NEXT MONTH I WILL…

Goals

  • Stay consistent with my workouts, I have to admit I started losing some motivation this month after eating a load of junk food but this girl can ๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿผ When I start losing motivation, I always ask myself, “why did I even start?” Determination quickly comes back and then it’s back to the obsession over green juice, kale salads, and my favourite workouts i.e. anything with my lower body.
  • Keep 9 – 5 work within the 9 – 5 frame. I am a workaholic but I need to stop worrying over an email in the middle of my relaxing weekend when I can reply to it on Monday. ๐Ÿ™ƒ Action: Delete work email off laptop and phone.
  • Communicate better. I learnt a lot about myself recently and one of the things I found was when I get upset, I bottle it all up and keep it stored in my head for ages causing builds up of tension and negative feelings. Which isn’t fun. I need to stop doing this and start talking about what bothers me so that problems are solved quicker. ๐Ÿ’œ
    Thank you to those who have been so patient with me when I get this way, I am so lucky to have such a supportive network of people around me.

Events

  • I’ll be going on my first trip abroad without my family! I’m a little nervous but excited about the learning process, views, beaches and being away from my grey home ๐Ÿ˜… Hamdah will tell you that I’m too organised but I’m not. *shrugs @ holiday spreadsheet ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ*
  • I’ve planned to watch Beauty and the Beast – ahhhhh, no one will understand my excitement. THIS IS A BIG DEAL.

MONTHLY FAVOURITES

Fitness:

So I have a new favourite tri-set: 10 x fire hydrants, 10 x donkey kicks and 15 x frog hip ups 4 times. This aches especially with weighed but is it worth it? Yes. Will you cry? Yes. Be unable to walk long distances and even sit down? Yes. But definitely worth it.

Thanks for always kicking my butt, Whitney ๐Ÿ˜‰

 Movies:

I watched Moana this month and y’all know how I feel about Disney and oceans. Would definitely recommend!

Music:

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Your mind will always believe everything you tell it.

Feed it faith.

Feed it truth.

Feed it with love.

14 responses to “February, For Me”

  1. Sounds like you had a great month! Lots of fun stuff and you’ve been taking care of yourself! I hope things continue to go this well!

  2. So brilliant to hear that is has been a really good month for you. ๐Ÿ˜€ I hope that this year equals your best one yet! ๐Ÿ™‚

    That sounds like an amazing conference to attend. Anything that is able to help women in technology is a really wonderful gift. It’s about time to the world gets that we are just as good as the guys, thank you very much. :3

    Wooo. That is brilliant that you are teaching the basics of web dev. I am sure that you would be a really inspiring teacher to work with. ๐Ÿ˜€

    Have a glorious March!

  3. Glad to hear you had a great month! You definitely deserve to treat yourself with all the work you do. I wish I had your motivation!

    The conference sounds amazing. It’s so great that you’re getting so involved in so many different things. It’s great to see so many women in tech smashing it!

    I want to see Moana so much, but I rarely get a chance to go to the cinema! I’ve heard that the songs in it are amazing.

    I’m lucky that my 9-5 always stays within those hours, but I find myself letting my blog/goals take up the majority of my free time, so I always feel like I’m working hard. I need to start pencilling in some chill time, so I can read without feeling guilty!

  4. I still need to see Moana. Looks like a good February to me!

  5. I just loving reading about your goals and your progress. It’s always so motivating and makes me want to set out do things too.

    Glow in the Dark Zumba sounds like a lot of fun! It’s also great to hear that you’re getting involved with so many things. Python is such a great intro language that is so useful across many fields, including the bio sciences. I’m so excited for you!

  6. That’s awesome that you’re teaching web development and are also learning Python! Python is on my list of things to learn (I want to learn a couple Javascript frameworks first though). I’ve heard it’s somewhat similar to Ruby, which is what I use at work. I already commented on your WiT entry, but I think it’s great that it was such a good experience!

    Aahh, I am totally bad about checking my work email outside of work. I think I just like to make sure I’m up-to-date, but I try not to reply to anything unless it’s an emergency. It’s hard for me to have that separation between personal and work!

    Yessss, I love Moana so much. Such a good movie and soundtrack! I want to see it again! That’s also exciting that you’re taking your first trip abroad without your family. I’m sure it’ll be a great trip! Have fun!

  7. I’m so glad you had a good month. Cheers to an awesome March! If only I had your motivation.

  8. Wow, great to have so many things in your life and great job in teaching and getting more girls into the tech scene! Tech scene definitely need more girls so that we will be lonely. Hahaha. I’m the only girl in my core team and it gets lonely at times…

  9. I loved reading this post and I can feel the happiness and positivity you had for the past month! It’s so cool that you’re teaching basics of web development, I’m sure that the students would learn so much from you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    I love anything that is connected to getting women into tech and I’m so happy that you’re into it! I have lots of brilliant friends who work in tech and they’re doing great – but I feel that it’s still a mostly male-dominated field; some girls actually shy away from degrees or even hobbies involving tech because they feel they don’t belong. It’s definitely time to show them that anyone can learn if they put their mind into it! ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. Wow, seems like you had a busy month and it’s full of accomplishments!
    Love how you’re breaking the women’s barrier in the world of coding. You go, girl!
    I also haven’t been to the gym in a while, but I will get back on my feet or Whitney Simmons will come for me lmao
    I love Moana! I’m still salty that it got robbed at the Oscars for best original song (La La Land’s City of Stars won).

  11. Sounds like February has been a very productive month for you in many ways. It’s great when key events in your life bring about experiences that changes you for the better. Such as attending a conference that left you full of passion and excitement. Teaching and sharing others your knowledge is also a good thing. All the good stuff you’re doing is all for you, and I am loving the positivity ๐Ÿ™‚

    As for your goals — yeah, I’m all for keeping work at work. That’s why I am so glad my work email is inaccessible on my phone and home computers. I can access it if I get this one accessory, but I don’t need to access my work email at home. No thank you!

    Enjoy your first trip abroad without family! I remember doing my first trip abroad alone when I was 19, and it was so freeing and exciting ๐Ÿ˜€ Can’t wait to read about this! Have a great March ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. You and Hamdah are so cute!

    I’m so glad that you had fun at WiT. Again, it looked amazing! I spotted your Instagram post talking about not beating yourself up for skipping a work out or eating something unhealthy and I was like YOU GO GURL!~ Yay for being body positive. So proud of you girl <3

    I relate so much to this:

    "…when I get upset, I bottle it all up and keep it stored in my head for ages causing builds up of tension and negative feelings."

    This is (was?) me, but I'm working on it. It's hilarious to me because Communication was part of my uni degree, but it's still taken me THIS long to be comfortable communicating how I feel. Even now, though, it's a lot and can sometimes drain me mentally.

    YAS, I watched Moana too! I really enjoyed and the songs and I was singing "You're Welcome" for ages afterwards. Haha.

  13. I’m glad to hear that February was a great month for you! I’m seeing a lot of great changes in your life and I am happy for you.

    Keep on slaying, yassss?

    It’s great that you enjoyed the conference a lot! I think it’s a great opportunity and good on you for taking full advantage of it :). I can’t believe it’s been 7 months since your placement! Wow, time flies by fast!!! Keep on rocking with that python learning! I tried to learn once but *forgot* about it @___@.

    It’s great that you’re growing into a body positive person. Be happy and stress-free! Good luck with your goals for March! Haha, I purposely keep work off of my mind during weekends so I don’t get burned out. It’s pretty much my way of avoiding the need for a vacation. Communication is key to success :). There’s no point in beating around the bush and taking longer to get things done.

    I’m looking forward to hearing more about your upcoming trip! If only you can exercise with me- you’d be a great motivator to keep me from taking breaks XD.

  14. Glow-in-the-dark Zumba sounds awesome! I actually have never taken a Zumba class, apart from getting a preview of it back in school. Anything that makes dancing or exercise even more fun is a plus in my book. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

    You look so cute in that photo, I can definitely tell you are having a great time. ๐Ÿ™ƒ I have seen your work with CFG and Iโ€™m overwhelmed with pride โ€“ to have a friend of mine make a big difference and inspire other women in tech or other women looking to learn to code… itโ€™s amazing. You already know a programming language I donโ€™t. ๐Ÿ˜† Iโ€™ve not yet had any interest in learning Python though I was exposed to it at one of my previous jobs.

    I donโ€™t often lose motivation when it comes to exercise. As long as I get my ass to the gym (which is fairly easy for me!), Iโ€™m fine. But when I eat junk food or donโ€™t eat a lot of healthy options that actually does become my motivation to keep going. ๐Ÿ’ช Kinda like Chynna having the #iworkouttoeat mentality! As soon as I feel some guilt for eating food that isnโ€™t so healthy, Iโ€™m right back on those kale and quinoa salads ๐Ÿ˜‰

    I think you have mentioned your tendency to bottle up your emotions before. I know that is something you can work on, and recognising that you need to improve that is definitely the first step. ๐Ÿ™‚ We all have different ways of dealing with emotions and a lot of us tend to bottle it up. As for me, I am pretty short tempered so quite the opposite. Hereโ€™s to both of us finding that middle ground we want. Weโ€™re both strong ladies with happy lives and things to live for, so that negativity needs to be let out in the gentlest and most gradual of ways ๐Ÿ˜Ž

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