Swissguard's Year in Review — 2025
A personal reflection on life, work, and growth in 2025.
A Year of Work, Change, and Quiet Wins
Looking back, 2025 was the year effort started compounding. It definitely wasn't, overnight or loud but it was steady enough that by the end of the year, I could finally feel the progress. A lot happened across life, school, work, and everything in between, but the biggest shift was internal. I learned what showing up consistently can actually do when you give it time. This was a foundation year.
What I Wanted From 2025
Going into the year, my main goals were clear. I wanted to make more money from tech, position myself better, get sharper at web development, and stop just building for passion alone. I’d already spent years doing that. This year was about leverage. I needed to be more intentional. Picking up tools that made sense. Exploring 3D graphics with WebGL to expand my range, and being practical enough to use tools like WordPress, Wix (wix is terrible, won't recommend and definitely won't use again) for simple website gigs and CMS tools like Sanity when they fit the problem better. Building smarter cause the grind wasn’t random anymore, it had direction. One thing I did intentionally was stop chasing every shiny new framework. Web development moves fast, especially online, but I focused on what works, what’s popular in my environment, and what helps me ship.
Discipline Changed Everything
One of the biggest shifts this year came from outside tech entirely. I started going to the gym, eating better, sleeping better (we getting the full 8 hours every night, except when Drake finally drops ICEMAN). Discipline spilled into everything else. I started waking up early, feeling fresher in the mornings, and more motivated to actually complete my daily tasks. The gym taught me something simple but powerful: if you show up and put in the work, you’ll see the results. Sometimes weekly. Sometimes slower. But never never. I carried that exact mindset into software development. Code, like the gym, rewards consistency more than bursts of motivation. Big shoutout to my mum as well for her support this year. She encouraged morning runs together, backed my gym routine and helped me eat better (cause lord knows i can't cook to save my life lmaoo), she played a massive role in making this lifestyle change stick.
School and SIWES: Theory vs Reality
Academically, this year was frustrating. The first semester was locked down, classes moved online, and of course it was trash. I don’t even learn much in physical classes, talk more of online ones. It felt disconnected, slow, and uninspiring. Second semester was SIWES, a six-month IT placement, and that’s where reality kicked in. It started off light. I was enthusiastic, eager, just happy to be on site. Over time, I was handed more responsibilities. Nothing massive on paper, but significant enough that mistakes could affect construction work in the bigger picture. That was eye-opening. Add to that the daily commute from my house to Ikeja. Lagos will humble you. The distance wasn’t even too much but the traffic was always ridiculous. But it also exposed me to parts of the city I’d never really known before. Before SIWES, my Lagos was basically my area and my school. This expanded that world.
Building for Value
My career as a software developer was the real center of gravity this year. Before 2025, I built constantly. Projects, ideas, experiments. I was never idle. Always onto the next thing. That phase built my confidence and my passion. I never really struggled with imposter syndrome, maybe because I learned to code before AI became mainstream and was forced to understand fundamentals deeply. This year, the goal shifted. Build, yeah, but build things that matter. One project that stands out was a slope deflection calculator I built for a civil engineering course. It calculated bending moments, shear forces, and generated diagrams. Completely outside my usual comfort zone of websites like, eCommerce, a SaaS etc. But it proved to me that I could adapt and solve unfamiliar problems if I understood the logic. On the work side, I landed a few gigs. I worked with an NGO in the US focused on Africans in the diaspora, especially in California. That relationship is still growing, and we’re working towards something bigger. Slowly, the money started coming in. It wasn’t explosive but it was consistent and that mattered.
Entering a Real Codebase
Later in the year, I landed a role as a software developer. I can’t say much about the company or product because of an NDA, but I genuinely believe in what we’re building. It’s not what you’d expect from the Nigerian tech space (yes this is a dig at fintechs, guys we have enough already), and that makes it even more exciting. My first week was a bit overwhelming. Getting access to a fairly large, real-world codebase will have you feeling like that. I didn’t want to break stuff. I had tasks, but I was cautious. I literally cloned the project into another workspace, did my changes there, then went back to the main codebase to re-implement everything once I was confident. That phase didn’t last long though, but it taught me respect for systems. Working with a senior engineer on my team has been one of the biggest growth accelerators for me. You think you’ve done a task well, then someone shows you a cleaner approach or a better structure. I never see that as a threat. It’s fuel. It pushes me to get better.
Music, Shows, and Staying Grounded
Music was therapy this year. Drake carried, as usual. Take Care, CLB, FATD, $$$4U. I’m not even glazing, he just gets it. The PartyNextDoor collab was needed. The low moments this year mostly came from things not working out the way I expected, and honestly, if you’re dealing with anything in that lane, trust me, there’s a Drake song for it. That man has lived all our lives. I don’t really watch movies, so series became my escape when I needed to disconnect. I finally finished The Vampire Diaries (took me a whole year, don’t ask why. Part of it was that mumu girl, Elena). I rewatched Seinfeld and The Office (I love sitcoms), started House MD to fill the void Grey’s Anatomy left behind, and recently got into The Sopranos.
Looking Forward
Next year, I want to stay consistent in the gym. I want to go out more, meet new people, try new things, and be more spontaneous. Career-wise, I want to level up further , explore mobile development (react native definitely), and possibly pick up a new language like Python. I know React Native won’t be a stretch coming from React. I’m proud of how I showed up this year, and I’m ready for what’s next.