Aurélie VacheLast year, at the same period I started to write a blog post about how to 2021 year was awesome, half of the article was written but I was postive at covid and I was not well, so I decided to never published it:
I had accomplished a lot in 2021, more than 20 talks/interventions, several podcasts, I became Docker Captain, CNCF Ambassador, a new series of videos on docker on youtube, a series of articles on Go, a new job...
Lots of things to say and something to be proud of, but the morale was not there.
So this year I also wondered if I should do one.
After reflection yes I will do a little retrospective of this year ... super sporty and rewarding, but I will try to be brief so as not to bore you :).
2022 In short
- 28 talks/interventions
- (Including 3 keynotes 😱)
- (Including 6 talks in English)
- (Traveled in France, Europe (!!) and USA (!!!))
- 1 live Twitch
- 6 internal workshops
- 1 full year as a DevRel
- Co-organized "Le Camping des speakers" tech conference
- CFP member of several conferences (Camping des Speakers, Very Tech Trip, Kubernetes Community Day France, KubeCon Europe 2023...)
- Published a visual book about Kubernetes physically
- Became a GitPod Hero
- Written several articles on Dev.to
- Written several articles on Programmez magazine
- Created and maintaned a listing of tech conferences
- Contributed to Docker documentation
- ...
Focus on my main challenges (& success?)
It took me 36 years to dare to say I am proud of myself and I think I can be proud of what I have acomplished this whole year too.
The first ever Keynote
This year was the first time I was asked to create and present a keynote. It was quite a challenge. Honestly, for 3 and a half months I had big doubts, I modified and re-modified the keynote then I presented it to Volcamp, in Clermont Ferrand (France): (what if we learned to) Learn and share differently).
I'm not going to lie to you, I was stressed ^^. Presenting a keynote, presenting the talk that will set the tone for an entire conference, is a huge responsibility.
But I presented it & I received only great feedback, the attendees liked it so that's the most important thing.
It was an awesome opportunity, thanks again to the Volcamp organizers 🥰.
First time in the US
This year, participating at the KubeCon Europe 2022 as an attendee, during the first keynote, I was not well. I feel not well. I feel small. So small. I remember of me tweeting that how KubeCon was a very huge conference, how awesome was the speakers and how I will never submit a talk because I am not as good as the others...
And ...
Several months later, I saw a tweet telling that everybody can submit a talk for the KubeCon NA (North America). "Everybody".
And I don't know what took me, a strange surge of courage ^^, but I submited my talk on tips for fighting impostor syndrome.
Yes, as if this talk could pass for the huge KubeCon conference?
...
And during my holidays in August I received an e-mail: "Your submission was ACCEPTED for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2022".
I have read the subject of this email several times. "Accepted". Accepted? I am accepted? At KubeCon? Me? In USA???
It was a strange feeling.
Finally, few months later, a few days after presenting my first keynote, I flew across the Atlantic and I gave my talk.
I was sooooooo nervous. It was not easy to speak in english, with my non-fluence. Moreover the talk was in live! (and my husband was able to attend it ❤️).
And... People seemed to like the talk?!
I received a lot of very good feedbacks, and private messages.
And I had the surprise to receive a very good note:
First keynote ... in English(!!)
Few weeks after, I received a message asking me not to give the talk about impostor syndrome as a talk but as a keynote... A keynote ... in english ... in sweden...
Again, it's so a strange feeling when you read the message and an awesome one also :-).
So, I had the opportunity to went to Stockholm to give my first keynote, in english!
I was stressed, but I wanted to do my best, only my best for this last travel accross the Europe.
Despite the stress, and the fact that it was in English, I wanted to take pleasure in presenting this talk which is close to my heart and despite my lack of fluency, I was really happy to present the talk and the participants liked it .
DevFest Stockholm organizers were lovely and did a great job! Thank you again! ❤️
And ... published a book ... a thing that took me 2 years of work
After 2 years of drawing and writing every evening, I finally, published my visual book about Kubernetes: Understanding Kubernetes in a visual way.
Publish a book, to explain Kubernetes, with illustrations, with sketchnotes, in paper version, personally I thought that would not interest anyone. But I'm glad to see that's not the case. People I don't know bought the book (I see you laughing while reading this passage, but honestly I seriously doubted it! :-D).
Conclusion
It was a very enriching & interesting year. I met a lot of awesome people.
But it has also been a super tiring year, I can't say otherwise.
And...
As usually, I think I haven't thought of everything but for someone who was unable to pronounce their first name, I think it has been a busy and awesome year.
So thank you for believing in me ❤️
What's next?
Good question.
I have several talks planned for the begining of 2023 and we will see for the rest 🤞
I planned to finish and publish my visual book for Docker physically in the begining of 2023 too.
And the rest, I don't know :-).
