2025 came with a steady rhythm. Less dramatic, kind of a block of time where I worked, wrote and travelled. By year’s end, small progress really added up.
Coding
Spent lots of my time this year to deepend skills and confront problems I deffered cracking in the past. I wrote code for Django and Next.js projects, debugged things that seemed impossible at first and connecting APIs and interfaces in a way that actually helped others get work done. Some days felt slow, especially when something simple refused to work, but in hindsight those were the days I learned the most.
A lot of my work focused on practical systems for small businesses and people in agriculture in Papua New Guinea. That meant fewer theoretical discussions and more decisions like: Will this actually make it easier to collect data? Does it load fast enough on a phone? Those questions made the projects feel grounded.
Writing
I wrote more than I expected. Notes about code, reflections about work, check-ins on where I was stuck or what I figured out. Without chasing perfection, I just kept a running document of thoughts and lessons. That helped me stay connected to what I was learning and writing ended up guiding the next project more than I planned.
Travel
Most of my travel this year was domestic, with one trip abroad. Places I visited changed how I perceived the work I’ve been doing. Talking with people in person, listening to their experiences and watching how they use, or don’t use, technology was more valuable than I anticipated. It’s one thing to test something yourself and another to see how it plays out with real users and real constraints.
Looking Back
This wasn’t a perfect year. I didn’t always hit my goals and I wasn’t always sure where things were going. But I learned things I couldn’t have learned by planning alone. I ended the year with clearer ideas about the problems I want to tackle and a stronger sense of what actually matters in the work I choose to do.
Here’s to what comes next. 🥂 🥂
Onward and Forward!
Glen Hayoge - Dec 30, 2025gghayoge at gmail.com