Hey, I just made it to twenty-six!

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions” — Stephen Covey

Hello reader, we meet again this year for our yearly tradition. There are not many things that are constant in my life, so I do not take the opportunity to write today for granted. It is now what I can boldly say is a tradition, and a good one at it. I started this particular edition after reading the ones from the previous years, and while I can remember things referenced and spoken about, I can’t fully picture how exactly I felt in the moments while I was writing them.

How many years of okorobia (loosely translates to young man) do I have left? A friend and I have this funny thing we do, where we banter ourselves that we have fewer years of okorobia left, which means time is not on our side, and we should be starting families. I have always fancied the idea of marrying early, if I was going to walk the walk, as I feel it is better to utilise my youth towards building a family with my wife. However, as we all know, life can be interesting.

I am writing to you from a strange place, well, not literally. I thought by this time this year, I would be in a better place, but unfortunately, I am not. This year has had me battle and face a couple of personal struggles. Especially career-wise. I came into 2026 with my intuition guiding me to do a career transition into software infra play (DevOps simply). Now, who does a career transition in the worst job market era ever? Well, Daniel does. I do not regret taking that path. If there is something I live by, it is that I have faith in myself like crazy.

On the bright side, there is something I have been working on, Radiqo, a product I believe has product-market fit and a lot of potential to scale. You might argue no way to confirm without launching it first, and you are right. I started building this as a side fun project, but then, while going at it, I realised it could be bigger than what I had in mind. I had to change things (I built prototypes twice using different platforms) and now build it with scale in mind. I hoped for it to launch today, to have that iconic feel to it. However, some things are not yet ironed out, and I would not want people’s first impression of the product to suck. Anyways you can join the waitlist on the website, and you will receive an email once we launch soon.

Two weeks from today, I have the Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) exam to take, thanks to the Andela program. I have been generally doing more hands-on and also reading to prepare for it. I feel I may be overpreparing for it but it is better to be overprepared than to be underprepared. I also have an upcoming Google Cloud Associate program, so H1 is me doing a lot of organisation-level hands-on around DevOps. To be fair, thanks to my home server for over a year, I have had a lot of home practice over the years. Some concepts are entirely new to me, and there are ones I just learned this year, too. Hopefully, I will be able to land a role in a place I find interesting. Or maybe I launch Radiqo and become unbelievably liquid, and I do not need to look for a role again, who knows?

Some days ago, I was inside a keke heading back home, and I started thinking about death. Death is quite interesting. One day you are here, alive and moving around, the next day you are gone and just exist in people's memories or through items you once possessed that remind people of you. Which can be argued to still be memory. Mehn, life is too short, and sometimes I wonder if I was born too early to experience humans flying to Mars. Death is inevitable; it will come for me, it will come for you, it will come for us all. At least for now, until we conquer it :)

Bringing back the topic of traditions earlier, this time last year, I was about 1.5 months into my consistent gym routine. Prior to then, anytime I decided to enrol in the gym, I didn't renew my subscription after the first month. I am happy to say that since last year till now, I have been consistent with the gym, and also semi-consistent with the Saturday Morning runs. I have been better health-wise, I look better physically and also stronger. It is not something I take for granted.

Currently, if you ask me how I am doing, if I really wanted to be honest with you, my reply would be, “I am going through a lot.” However, the funny thing about people who think they know you is that they think such a statement from me is impossible and obviously can’t be true. Sometimes I understand why people don’t “speak up”. However, I am grateful for my close friends, the ones who are my rock and support, who can understand the battles I am facing and still encourage me to go on. I am going through a lot, but one thing I do know is that it gets better. I just have to not die :)

As much as I usually do not have anything planned out for my birthday, aside from writing this piece, I do not take birthdays for granted. It is a day I get to receive the largest amount of text, and also respond to them. Trust me, it can be a lot, but I am not complaining. In fact, I am grateful to have people celebrate me on such occasions. It is once a year, after all. Aside from publishing this article and going to the gym early in the morning, I really do not have a lot planned out. Maybe I would play some chapters of Alan Wake 2 on my handheld, the ROG Ally X, which I got as a post-birthday gift for myself last year. Or play some co-op matches with folks inside Call of Duty; the possibilities are endless.

I know I am older this year, but I feel soooooo old, as if I am THAT (30+) old, which is quite interesting. The time is approaching when I will not be able to crack 30+ jokes again like that. Shoutout to all of you who I have in my life. I do not take them for granted. I am glad to be able to write to you today, and also have you read my thoughts too. As always, I hope to see you at the same time next year. Have a wonderful day!