Reimagine Journey - A Big Milestone

Nine months ago, I started the Reimagine Journey to shift my career from engineering leadership to hands-on technology, specifically focusing on my health, personal growth and advanced tech skills. The long extended leave gave me the time and space to reflect on what I truly love and shape the next chapter of my career. It gave me the opportunity to determine how I want to live the rest of my life.

This decision felt risky and nerve-wracking at the time, but it has turned out to be one of the best choices of my life. In this post, I would like to share how I spent that time and what I learned from it, in the hope that someone may find it useful as a blueprint or source of inspiration. Read along and let me know your thoughts!

If you are considering a similar path, I would be happy to share more details and brainstorm concrete ideas on how you can also do it too, for the same duration or shorter one. Please DM me on LinkedIn.

The beginning

I started the journey in October 2023 determined to focus on four key areas - tech builder, time freedom, mental health and physical health. As we stepped into the new year, I refined these goals to build three assets:

1. healthy body 💪 - build muscle, achieve a fit and lean body and eat nutritious whole foods.
2. active brain 🧠 - strengthen my tech foundation, code, build apps, read and learn math.
3. relaxed mind 💚 - pursue hobbies like piano, dance, travel and invest in family and friends.

To make progress on these lofty goals, I broke them down into smaller chunks and staggered the focus for each month. I experimented with different models, succeeded in some, and faced frustrations in others, but eventually found a rhythm for making progress.

I know that showing goals like these can be abstract, so let me get to some specifics and explain what happened during each of these nine months.

Timeline of the 9 months

• October - My main focus this month was health 💪- an area I had ignored over the years. Growing up, I was never athletic (dance and music were my favorite activities), and when I started working full-time, it was hard to prioritize exercise. I tried various many exercise regimens (including Crossfit for a few months), but was never able to build consistency. So I went back to basics and started the Julian.com Build Muscle program. The program was simple to follow but physically challenging, especially at the beginning. I diligently tracked my reps and sets daily, which helped me stay accountable and motivated.

  This month also marked the beginning of my transition away from work life 💚, triggering an unexpected identity crisis. Having been so deeply immersed in my career, it was difficult to shake off that part of my identity. I found myself grappling with questions about my purpose and self-worth outside of my professional role. This was very uncomfortable, but helped set the stage for the months to come.

• November - On the learning front 🧠, I started learning web development, specifically focusing on JavaScript, HTML and CSS. I completed two courses: Learn JavaScript Online by Jad Joubran and Modern JavaScript by Execute Program.

  On the health front 💪, I continued with the strength training program and incorporated cardio exercises into the workout routine. I primarily took long walks on the treadmill while watching some TV shows on Peloton’s built-in Netflix app or YouTube videos on my laptop propped up on the treadmill. It was really hard to keep the balance the time between learning and exercise, but I kept going.

• December - This month I began learning React, TypeScript and CSS. I did three courses: Pluralsight’s React 18: the big picture by Cory House, React 18 Fundamentals by Rolan Guijt and the awesome course Joy of React by Josh W Comeau. I also joined piano classes in my neighborhood and found a lot of joy of learning and playing the piano.

  Coincidentally, it was also the Christmas season, and my daughter was home for vacation. My mom-in-law was also with us for this Christmas. It was really nice to spend quality time with family. We even hosted an English-themed Christmas dinner, which was a wonderful experience!

• January - started learning NextJS, Tailwind UI and . Learning NextJS was a fun experience, thanks to their detailed documentationand vibrant community support. Tailwind CSS proved equally impressive, both proving how far frontend development frameworks have evolved. I also started learning Math by starting a course Mathematical Foundations by Math Academy.

  This was also the time I delve deeper into the new advances in AI and LLMs such as LLaMA 2, Gemini, Claude. I experimented by running some of the models locally using Ollama. The pace of innovation in this space was truly incredible.

• February - I shifted gears from learning to building starting with simple apps like TicTacToe, a movie browser named Movie Mania using TMDB APIs, and a Helix tutor app. All these apps are deployed and published at my ANNonymous playground. Each of these are fairly straightforward, but it helped me put my lessons into practice and gain real hands-on experience. I went through the highs when things worked well and the lows when they dodn’t go as expected. And I loved it.

  My health regimen continued in full swing. My dad was at home, so I recruited him also to my health program - he started walking 10K steps everyday and eating healthy food with me. It was fun to do it together.

• March - I started developing a new app called Keep Seek, designed to track infrequently used items in the house (eg: Christmas decorations, tools, appliance spare parts etc.). This app was solving a need I myself had, so it was really fun building it. The initial versions were basic and rough (I was the PM, XD and dev all in one 🙂). But it improved everyday in terms of UI, architecture and features.

  On the health front, I was ready to graduate from the Julian.com program to something more structured. So I started a 4-week program on Peloton called Stronger You by Andy Speer. This program significantly pushed my physical limits and helped me stay focused on improving the reps and the load over the course of the program.

• April - I continued refining Keep Seek incorporating Gen AI image-to-text capabilities to streamline data entry. The app allows users to simply take a picture of a garage shelf and it will automatically record all the items in one go. I also experimented with various UI layouts using Tailwind UI components and became really good at implementing various UI layouts quickly.

  On the personal front, I traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to visit my cousin and family. The timing was perfect, as spring was in full bloom. It was a beautiful time of the year with spring in full bloom. We visited the Ohio Amish village and hiked the Hocking Hills State Park. After returning from the trip, I spent a lot of time with my dad, helping him establish a robust health routine and nutrition plan

• May - I spent most of this month on a wonderful trip to Europe, our second personal trip to the continent. The previous one in 2006 was without my daughter, so I wanted to do one with her before she finishes college. It was perfect timing too - the best weather and smaller crowds.

  We traveled to Germany, the Netherlands, Paris and Switzerland, enjoying the beautiful landscapes, museums, qunitessential Dutch villages, delicious food in Paris, train journeys and the stunning Alps. Another big highlight of the trip was reconnecting with our cousins and extended family in these countries. The trip preparation was a journey in itself. While mostly enjoyable, planning the trip was non-trivial. But in the end, the effort paid off and we had a memorable holiday with our daughter.

• June - The Europe trip caused my strength training to stall, so my main goal this month was to resume my health regimen. To more structured, I started another program on Peloton Stronger You 2, by another instructor named Ben Alldis. This program was perfect for me. I loved Ben’s program structure it was logical, systematic and very efficient with the use of time. Most importantly, his style of communication — talking to you as an equal rather than an expert — reduced any feeling of intimidation and encouraged me to push harder.

  On the “builder” side, I built another app - a photo gallery app - inspired by our Europe trip. The goal was to host our trip photos in a private cloud instead of using Google Photos and to create a custom website around it. It helped in refining my coding skills even more and preserving our memories in a safe space. The app is published at GAL photo gallery app.

• July - I repeated Ben’s 4-week strength training program, this time with more intensity. I added 5 lbs to all weights and focused on proper form and repetition quality. I feel stronger and more fit than ever. My clothes fit better, and I can see a noticeable shape in my body.

  On the personal front, I travelled to Minneapolis, MN to visit my husband’s extended family. It was a lot of fun seeing them after many years. We had a lovely first holy communion celebration, enjoyed a scenic river cruise in Hudson, Wisconsin and drove up the North Shore around Lake Superior. We visited Gooseberry Falls State Park and Palisade Head Historical Marker. This map has all the markers along the way - Minnesota Lake Superior drive.

  I continued refining the photo gallery app - trying different storage services such as Cloudinary, Cloudflare Images and Cloudflare R2. I integrated all three services into my app and compared them in terms of performance and cost. Finally, I found the best storage service among them - Cloudflare R2. Now it is ready upload all photos there and update the gallery app.

What next?

I am going to continue my journey with even more enthusiasm. I loved these 9 months. I learned a lot about myself and reinforced my passion for technology, math and music.

I also want to open source the code for the apps that I have built. I don’t intend to make money from these apps, but I think people may find it useful and can use it for their own purpose. I also want to do more volunteering work, giving back to the community and make a positive impact.

As Robert Frost wrote, miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep. These past months have been a transformative journey, and I look forward to the miles ahead.