I Didn’t Stop Building. I Just Left My Laptop.

Hey there again guys! It’s been almost two months since my last post. And in the back of my head, there was this constant thought: “I need to get back to writing.” But every time I sat down to do it, something else showed up. Work. Office. Learning. Life just… sped up out of nowhere. So this isn’t really a “comeback” post. It’s more like a checkpoint. --- ### The pace changed faster than I expected Since my last blog (the cloud one), things shifted pretty quickly. I started going to the office daily. Got pulled deeper into work. Started communicating with Japanese clients. And suddenly, I wasn’t just “learning Japanese” anymore. I was using it. In real conversations. With real stakes. I’m the most junior person on my team. Everyone else is already at N2 or N1 (which are almost the highest level of Japanese language). So every interaction feels like: > try → struggle → catch one word → reconstruct meaning → survive → repeat Not graceful. But effective. And weirdly satisfying when it works. Also, apparently my coping mechanism is… sketching during office hours 😭 Here are a few:  --- ### From side projects to real systems I also started working with mainframes. Can’t really talk about details, but the shift in mindset was interesting. Before this, most of my experience was: * tutorials * side projects * building things from scratch Now it’s: * existing systems * constraints I don’t control * decisions that already exist for a reason And that forced a different kind of thinking. Writing code is one thing. Understanding why a system is the way it is… is another game entirely. ^^; --- ### Somewhere in between… marketing? At the same time, I picked up a part-time role in marketing. Not for the money. (Honestly, the pay is minimal. ಥ_ಥ ) But I wanted to understand something I’ve always ignored: **How do you actually get people to care about what you build?** And this added a completely different layer to everything. * choosing the right people for the right tasks * understanding audience * positioning ideas * thinking beyond just “build and ship” But the surprising part? I actually enjoy it. I ended up talking to a lot of different people, negotiating deals, figuring out collaborations, managing an intern myself. And somewhere in the middle of that, I had this random thought: > bro… this feels like something I used to watch in Suits Like watching Harvey Specter close deals and thinking “damn that’s cool”… …and then doing a tiny version of that yourself. (☆▽☆)  Not gonna lie though, it *is* exhausting. My introvert side takes damage every time. But it’s the good kind of damage. The kind you’d still choose again. --- ### Some wins, some misses I also interviewed for a Cloud Solutions Architect role at Microsoft. Didn’t crack it. Didn’t impress them the way I wanted to. But it was still a really good experience. It showed me the gap. And more importantly, it made the path clearer. Also… I made them laugh. ヾ(≧▽≦*)o And weirdly, that’s what I remember the most. Like yeah, I was nervous. Properly sweating at one point. But if I can still land a joke in that situation… then I’m probably more capable than I give myself credit for.  --- ### Life outside the screen (but still learning) Somewhere in between all this chaos: * I made some money trading stocks (very little yet very scary ToT) * Tried getting back into Japanese properly (Man ts tuff) * Worked on side projects (one with @webdeveloperhyper - will write about it soon, another with @hisukurifu - still in the planning phase) And… I went to Comic Con dressed as Monkey D. Luffy 🐐 Which was honestly one of the best decisions I’ve made this year. Something about stepping out of your usual identity and just having fun hits different. Me (center with one hand up) at comic con:  --- ### Something I didn’t expect I haven’t done much “pure development” lately. And I kind of miss it. Like that feeling of just building something random at 2am for no reason. No requirements. No constraints. Just curiosity. But at the same time… I don’t think I stopped building. I just started building different things. * communication * systems understanding * decision-making * real-world context Things that don’t show up on GitHub. But probably matter just as much. --- ### I also kinda missed this place I lowkey missed Dev.to. The writing. The discussions. Weekly wins by @jess. Meme Mondays by @ben. Even when I wasn’t posting, I’d drop in sometimes. Read a few posts. Leave a comment here and there. @javz, @francistrdev, @webdeveloperhyper — some really good stuff lately.  Felt nice just being around. --- ### What comes next I still want to build something. But not just for the sake of building. Something genuinely useful. Something that actually matters. And I have this feeling… that all these side quests are slowly connecting toward that. So the next thing I build? It won’t just be another project. It’ll mean something. --- ### If you’re still here I somehow have ~6k people following me here. Which still feels a bit unreal if I'm being honest. So I figured it’s only fair to say where I’ve been. If you’re curious about anything: * working with Japanese clients * mainframes * cloud prep / interviews * balancing work + side projects * marketing & negotiations Ask away and I’ll probably turn those into the next few posts. --- And so… to wrap this up, it’s been a bit overwhelming. New work. New expectations. New environments. Trying to keep up, trying to grow, trying to not fall behind. Some days it feels like everything is happening at once. But somehow… I’m still here. Still figuring things out. Still saying yes to things. Still trying new stuff. Still grateful for everything. Still staying a little silly through it all. I’ve learned to call it “funmaxxing.” Because if things are going to be chaotic anyway… might as well squeeze as much life out of it as possible. So yeah, still learning, still building (just in different ways), still confused… but moving forward anyway.