My biggest technical goals are…

continuing to grow in systems thinking. I want to grow my toolbelt of approaches to tackling problems and come at issues from a variety of informed angles before implementing a solution.

On a similar note I want to give some killer tech talks this year and set aside more time for writing. You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but I still really like sharing cool ideas and concepts with anyone who will listen.

My biggest technical achievements are…

In the past few months I've owned the design and implementation of some core back end product features that improved performance and reliability as well as adding new user functionality. Serious bonus of working at a startup -- getting to own some FUN problems across a variety of areas.

Advocating for myself looks like…

not "kneecapping" my own ideas.

"Kneecapping" your ideas was described to me as cutting them down before you even share them, presumably because you think you need to make your thoughts more palatable. Things like saying "if it's not a bother" instead of asking for what you need or "I think" instead of just saying what you think or overusing the word "just". With a background in cultural studies and linguistics, I would be entirely remiss if I didn’t mention that there are a lot of cultural factors and nuances to all of this. What I have seen is that people who are successful in similar sociocultural settings as me generally share their thoughts directly.

I started to say what I thought directly. I had some serious fears about communicating my thoughts directly coming across as an angry woman.

But overall, I find that people I speak with take my ideas seriously when I share my ideas seriously. Your ideas are valuable. Share them!

I pledge to support women, non-binary folks, and other minorities in tech by…

continuing to offer my experience and resources to those who are coming into tech from non-traditional backgrounds (and hopefully finish out some of the blog posts I've left yet unfinished about the topic).

I’m excited about…

what this year has in store. I'm excited about the under-represented folks I see joining the communities I'm a part of -- Slack, in person, and otherwise. I'm excited about continuing to learn and to grow. I'm excited about gearing up to do more speaking. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about my "to read" pile!

Honestly I'm just excited. At this point, my learning and growth seem to be on an exponential trajectory. So I'm excited to continue on that journey and share out what I see along the way. And hopefully it helps someone else, too.