2022 in Retrospective

My last year was both challenging and rewarding, with a lot happening in such a short period of time. Although, I haven’t been as active here as I wanted to (due to everything else I had to attend), I am writing this post to do a retrospective of 2022. Besides being able to share this with you, the writing of this blog post should help me look back at this period of my life to consider what went well (or not) but also what I have learned during this period.

At the beginning of the year, I was supposed to be living in Toyohashi (Japan) for my masters program. However, due to the COVID restrictions at the time, that was not possible, and I ended up staying in Portugal and having remote classes. Despite the fact that I was looking forward to experience Japan, I am sure another opportunity will come up in the future, and that will still be feasible!

A couple months afterwards, I had to relocate to Ghent (Belgium) also for my masters degree. (In case you are curious about this type of international masters program which by the way offer full-scholarships, check this page from the European Comission.) The city itself is as picturesque as it can get, and if you are on your way to Bruges from Brussels, it’s well worth the stop. In Belgium, the beer-culture is simply the best, with the only bad thing being that your beer-standards become incredibly high - those belgian monks sure knew what they were doing! While there, I worked on my thesis Hyperspectral Image Fusion: A Comprehensive Review in the Light & Lighting Laboratory from KU Leuven.

After presenting my thesis, I went back to Portugal where several months of work (which was happening in parallel with my professional and educational life) culminated with the organization of DjangoCon Europe 2022 and the first edition of a PyCon Portugal. The talks and photos of both events are now online. Looking back, that was definitily a stressfull time, and the people around me sure played a invaluable part in making sure that both conferences were a big success. The feedback from everyone involved (speakers, attendees, volunteers, and sponsors) was terrific! However, don’t expect to see me organizing another conference so soon.

More recently, I have moved to Dublin (Ireland) after accepting a new job at Microsoft as a Software Engineer at the Geneva Metrics Infrastructure team. It was an incredible opportunity that I am grateful to have received, and I am looking forward to all that the future holds as I begin this new chapter in my career.

Overall, 2022 has been a truly remarkable year, and I am grateful for all of the opportunities and experiences that it has brought my way. Here’s to a bright future ahead!