April, For Me

Main Highlights

Online

• 📝 On the blog, I wrote a post about how I became an AWS Community Builder, surviving remote on-boarding and about how I’ve been feeling a year on from the pandemic.
• 🎙 On the podcast, I published two episodes. My first episode was a collaboration episode with Sonnie, Elle and Rebekah about how to survive remote on-boarding. The second episode was me excitedly celebrating over 1,000 podcast downloads which is wild! I never thought a small project like this would ever make it to 1k listens 🎧
• 🎧 I recorded a few exciting collaboration episodes coming up! We’ve got conversations around DevOps, paying it forward and taking care of yourself during a pandemic.

Career / Learning

• 🎤 At work, I had the opportunity to host a stream in our annual Tech conference! I was on a Zoom webinar call, facilitating the stream for 2 days straight. 😂 Although I’m still a little exhausted by it, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would love the chance to do it all over again. So, if you ever need an MC for an event – hit me up!
• 📱 At work, I supported my first event “on-call”. It was a fun experience!
• 📚 I’ve started doing some serious studying for my Kubernetes exam! I’ve committed to at least 30 minutes or so of reading and practising my YAML engineering 😉
• 😬 It’s been a busy month at work! I’m excited for some downtime next week.
• 🧡 Some news… Coming soon!

Community

• 🛠 After inspiration from a recent podcast recording with Erleene, Yasmin and Rahmat, I launched the “Ladies in DevOps” community! Since its launch day which was only a week or so ago, we’ve already had an uptake of over 400 community members. I didn’t think it would blow up the way it has, but I’m so grateful to connect with more DevOps-y female engineers. You can find out more and join us here. Thank you to my talented brother, Clark, for designing the logo and overall brand.

Personal

• 💜 Because of some mental health reasons, I decided to return to Sheffield this month. I’m glad that I could be at home with my family again and have the time to focus on taking care of myself properly. Being in a larger space (and garden!), around family and having quicker access to nature has done wonders for my mental health. I’m grateful!
• 🏃🏻‍♀️I started running. And it’s great.
• 🍎 I enjoyed the Apple event this month and got myself some AirTags. I’ve been actively stopping myself from buying the new purple iPhone. Update: I bought it. 😂
• 👩🏻‍💻To help me get comfortable, my dad made me my own little space to work remotely from. I now have a nice set-up at my parents house too! The flexibility is fantastic. 😊

• 💪🏼 Because I’m home and less stressed with everything going on, I’ve finally had the chance to get my shit together. Booked appointments and check-ups, organised digital stuff, had time to think and overall feeling pretty good about it all.
• ☀️ The weather has been wonderful. I’m starting to feel very optimistic!

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Things that made me happy

The key thing that has improved my mood this month has had to be doing more stuff for my mental health. So, I took up a new hobby – running. 😂 Now if you all know me, I hate running and most forms of cardio. But exercising outside has given me a sense of freedom that I haven’t felt in a long time because of the pandemic! I have been physically challenging myself to do something different with my exercise which has just been so nice. Maybe it’s the runners high? Who knows! I hope to keep this habit up this year. 😊 I ran my first 10k this month which I’m super stoked about.

I’m also super thrilled about the Ladies in DevOps turnout. For the first time in a long time, I’ve not felt so isolated and alone as an Engineer in tech. It’s been great sharing stories, making new friends and connections and just learning from others! Members have also said the same about the community creating a wonderful, safe space for them too. It just warms my heart. Tech can be isolating especially if you’re a woman, but it’s less so with a community right behind you. 💜

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April in Photos

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April Favourites

• 📺 Parks & Rec – I was getting The Office vibes initially, but now it’s become it’s own show and I absolutely love it!
• 📺 Falcon and The Winter Solider – ONE OF THE BEST, LOVED EVERY EPISODE.
• 🏃🏻‍♀️ I broke my “no activewear” rule 😂 I got myself Lululemon running leggings (mostly because all my other leggings kept slipping when I ran), a running jacket, long-sleeve base layer, a headband, ~things~ holder and some new Bluetooth trainers from Underamour. Who understood the assignment? ME. I DID. 🏃🏻‍♀️

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Quote of the Month