7 October 2017

Hi all.

It’s been a while since I’ve written (though I’ve buried a few drafts) so I wanted to write and share some updates about my personal and professional life.

First, I live in Walla Walla WA now. The move was a five day marathon of driving and camping. It was also a learning experience¹.

Second, I freelance for a living. This is a weird sentence for me to write, as its only now occurring to me that my career actually does provide a living. The move to WA bit a nice chunk out of my bank account, and my subsequent contracting on Upwork did just enough to keep me afloat while I looked for a full time job. Here’s the thing though – I’ve stopped looking.

A few weeks ago, I took a contract with Collectively. They pay me a fair rate, and suddenly I’m not so worried about finding a full time job. I’m taking a bit of a risk – my contract is up in a month, and there’s no promising I’ll be offered a new one – but it’s a risk I’m willing to take for now.

The project, which is in Wordpress development, has introduced me to an entirely new set of skills. I learn a lot about Wordpress and front-end development each day, and I find that to be very valuable. While I enjoy the project, I’m also conflicted – I am glad to be exposed to a wide breadth of technology, but I’ve always thought of myself more in the backend camp (and sometimes I miss coding in Go). I hope that this direction in my career leaves room for me to double back to working in Go. My biggest fear is to be pigeon-holed.