A few years ago I wrote a post called 2016 Review: What Did and Didn’t Work. I originally intended to write a post like that every year as an annual opportunity to reflect on the direction my life is moving in, and what I need to change moving forward.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason I just didn’t get around to writing that post in 2017 and 2018. No matter, we’re going to get back on the annual review train this year.
I’m going to be using the same format I used in the 2016 post. First I’ll share some photos and talk about some of the things I did during each month of this year.
This will give me an opportunity to reflect on the progress I made this year. Ideally, seeing another person hustling through life will motivate you to make 2020 a hell of a year. At the very least, this post will serve as a sort of memento for future Cameron, or others to look back on.
Finally, to conclude this post I’ll reflect on some things that didn’t go my way this year, things I learned from those failures, and what things the life of Cameron Chardukian may have in store for 2020.
January — I had just split up with my previous partner, and I also had some time off for the Chinese New Year. As a result, this gave me a lot of time for introspection. My time off was especially introspective because I stayed in Saigon rather than traveling.
Almost everyone I knew in Saigon, however, had travel plans. With no romantic partner, and basically no friends in the city, looking anywhere but inward wasn’t really an option.
This month was also interesting because it was the first time I went on dates with girls that didn’t speak any English. This actually led to one of the most interesting things I learned about myself all year. We’ll get into some deeper discussions about that later on in this post.
For now, let’s look at a new food I tried this year — Crab soup with pig brain.
February — While it had officially opened about 6 months prior, this month was the first time I made it around to checking out Landmark 81 — Southeast Asia’s tallest constructed building and supposedly the 17th tallest building in the world.
I wasn’t disappointed. While the tower itself was architecturally impressive, I was more surprised at how the Vinhomes Central Park area felt like its own mini separated city.
With luxury apartments, a nice shopping mall, and a beautiful park area, I had brief thoughts about how it would be a nice place to retire my parents to, if I unexpectedly had to stay in Saigon for more than a couple more years.
This month I also enjoyed some nice drinks. From ginger tea, green tea with honey, to skyline smoothies, there were some refreshing moments.
And ummmm… I shaved my head.
March — Let me mention it now, because I haven’t gotten to it yet. From late November 2018 all the way up to present day (we’re currently at the March 2019 part of the story), I’d been working on my coding skills just about everyday to try to transition into the technology industry.
While I hadn’t yet landed a gig, this month I pushed through a lot of mental discomfort. I worked hard to solve countless algorithms. I worked even harder though to understand the algorithms I couldn’t solve — often re-writing solutions 20-40 times by hand while forcing myself to verbalize what each part of code was doing and how everything came together to eventually solve the larger problem.
I also became kind of obsessed with going to this bun thit nuong place as often as possible.
On the other hand, while I didn’t eat it a lot of times, I liked this grilled octopus place too.
At the end of the month, I also treated myself to a nice western dinner.
More importantly, I learned (ok I was told repeatedly) that shaving my head and going baldy wasn’t my best look. Fortunately, I found this cool place that offered haircuts for less than a dollar (20,000VND).
April — My Vietnamese was coming along nicely. My Vietnamese tutor and I spent ~20 hours reading the first several chapters of a Diary of Anne Frank — in Vietnamese of course.
I also walked around a part of Saigon I hadn’t previously explored much (District 7).
Of course, besides learning code, I also had to do some work to make a living. That “making a living business” consisted of me drawing some laughably bad pictures for my 2nd grade students’ 1-1 speaking exam.
My favorite picture of the month, however, actually occured after school one day. I was working on the computer in the convenience store, and then when I stood up to stretch I saw a sight I knew needed to be captured.
If you’d like to know about some of the uncomfortable situations I encountered this month, keep reading.
For one, I started getting really annoyed by the fact that the apartment I was living at had people smoking and gambling outside. Every. Single. Night.
On a date, a girl tricked me into buying her Durian.
Worst of all, one day I had to go to the bathroom really bad. I was about 10 minutes away from home so I asked the restaurant I just ordered from if I could use their bathroom.
Well of course they said yes. Little did I know what their bathroom had in store for me… O_o
May — I had some fun at a trampoline park!
Most importantly, after my main school finished for the summer, I focused all of my extra energy into becoming a better developer. This included declining additional content marketing work from my biggest client, as well as starting a software development focused youtube channel.
I think this was the month I also stopped working with my Vietnamese tutor because becoming a better developer was the higher priority, and I’d reached an inflection point where I could comfortably socialize in most beginner to intermediate situations.
June — This month had a ton of ups and downs. For one, I believe this was the time I really got fed up with Saigon. Anyone who has been to Saigon knows it’s a polarizing place. Living here can be emotionally exhausting.
After requesting an extended leave from the company I’d been teaching English with, I also felt a lot of self-doubt. Not only had I just shut off my two main streams of income, I was also worried about my tax situation.
Fortunately, my worries were exaggerated and I was able to work with an excellent expat accountant to become fully compliant with the IRS.
I also felt mixed emotions seeing my wonderful students graduate kindergarten. I’d taught them from the time they were just 3 years old all the way until they were 5-5.5 years old.
Seeing how emotional I was getting at seeing my students grow up, I developed a further apprecipation for how emotionally intensive it must be to be a parent and see your child develop.
This month was also personally fulfilling as I had the opportunity to meet my brother’s son, and my sister’s daughter for the first-time.
Those moments, as well as surprising my mom by visiting home for the first time in 2 years made June an amazing month.
Apart from catching up with family, a side benefit of catching up with my brother and meeting his son was the opportunity to visit Los Angeles for the first time.
On the professional side, June saw me make some posts in different Facebook groups to indicate I was interested in working as a developer. It also was a time in which I spent dozens of hours at home alone on my “vacation” grinding through HackerRank problems, and documenting my thought processes in solving them.
July — I spent the first half of the month in the US before returning to Vietnam.
Shortly after coming back to Vietnam I was offered employment by the “most prestigious” English language center in Vietnam. I took a 1-week course with them on teaching English to young learners. More importantly, I performed well during interviews with a couple technology companies.
I also found a new apartment to live in, which mysteriously seems to have been deleted from my photos lol. All I found was a photo of the first time the cleaning staff returned to my clothes to me. Ahhh… nothing like customer service in Southeast Asia.
August — The new English teaching job didn’t pan out. They were impressed by my performance, but I saw that working at this company didn’t align with my goals.
Fortunately, I was able to return and work at my old company part-time again.
Most importantly, this was the month I finally started working full-time in the technology industry!
September — I spent pretty much all of my time improving my tech skills. Most weeks I worked 55+ hours. While it was an incredibly fulfilling month, it wasn’t necessarily the most joyful one. Self-doubt, frustration, stress, and fatigue were just as prevalent as expansion, growth, and excitement.
October — This month was pretty much the same as September. I did have an interesting time walking around the city center on Halloween though.
November — This month was the month I turned a corner to some extent. My hard work over the past few months led to the rapid development of my skills which resulted in me being informed that I’d been moved from a temporary to a permanent contract.
To celebrate, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a Spanish restaurant.
I also joined a gym, and worked out consistently for a month.
December — I lost some steam by the latter half of this month. I’d been working 7 days a week 55+ hours a month for over 4 months. I think in 4 months I’d had something like 3.5 days off, and two of those days I was only off because I was sick.
As a result, I let off the gas a little. I moved from the 55-58 hours of work a week range down more towards the 50-54 range. I also took 2.5 days off at one point to regather myself.
Review
Let’s quickly review what went well this year, and what didn’t.
What Worked in 2019
Win #1 Career
This was the year I finally broke into the technology industry. While teaching English can be lots of fun, the ceiling for professional development as an ESL teacher wasn’t what I was looking for.
Finally breaking into the technology industry has made me so much more optimistic about my future. It’s a great feeling to be paid for doing something that will sharpen your skills.
In the end, having rare and in-demand skills is what will eventually allow you to work remotely and be well-compensated anywhere in the world.
While I’m not living the digital nomad lifestyle I dreamed of at 18, getting some experience in the technology industry is exposing me to all of my weak points as a professional and showing me exactly what I need to focus on to eventually reach the goal I’ve set out for myself, and my loved ones.
2019 was the year I focused on developing hard skills and producing sustainable value.
2019 Career Takeaway: Focus on the path that’ll best support your dreams — not the path that has a shaky foundation and that will only allow you to temporarily semi-live your dreams.
Win #2 Vietnamese
While my Vietnamese was coming along decently by the end of 2018, I made MASSIVE progress with the language this year. I also learned something about myself.
Whether the other people are from Vietnam, the USA, Europe, or wherever, I prefer socializing in other languages. While it requires more mental exertion, counterintuitively I find socializing with non-English speakers more relaxing.
I find interactions in other languages more mentally stimulating, and because I see a very tangible gain (the development of my skills in another language), I’m far more likely to actually relax rather than feel like I’m “wasting time” being away from work.
Having so many non-English interactions this year has also helped me rid myself of my “teacher talk” habit. While I still sometimes sucumb to talking about myself too much, I’ve really tried this year to be a better listener and focus on the other person’s experience.
The cool thing about speaking a foreign language at an intermediate level is that while you can understand a decent chunk of what the other person is saying, you need to listen intently and ask many clarifying questions in order to do so.
2019 Vietnamese Takeaway: Any language is learnable. It’s also possible to take the listening skills you’ve acquired from intereacting with others in another language back to your native language. Doing so can help you become both a better listener, and a more effective communicator in general.
Win #3 Family
It’s surreal to see family members getting older, and starting their own families. It’s kind of strange to think that someone that you were really close with growing up now has their own family.
It’s also interesting to see those that are older than you change their life priorities as they age. This year I spent nearly a month in the US, so I was able to interact with my family and see these things a lot more than in previous years.
2019 Family Takeaway: You’re not going to regret the amount of money you spend visiting loved ones. While a $500 or $1,500 trip may seem like a lot of money as a young person, if you’re working hard in an intelligent manner, that money will seem trivial in the future. The memories made on the other hand — priceless.
Win #4 Work Ethic
While in previous years I “felt” like I was working hard. I’ve looked at the numbers (I record how I spend each hour of everyday), and it’s inarguable that this year is the hardest I’ve ever worked.
Constructing a detailed plan of action is highly underrated. Not only does doing so make you more efficient, it also gives you more motivation to take action because you’re confident you’ll actually get where you want to go.
2019 Work Ethic Takeaway: Have a vision of exactly what you want. Then, reverse-engineer exactly what it would take to attain those things. Construct a plan for yourself, and have people more intelligent than you verify that your plan is all but certain to succeed (assuming you stick to it). Doing this removes a TON of the resistance we encounter when trying to exert ourselves.
What Didn’t Work in 2019
Saigon, Vietnam
While Saigon is a great city, I’ve become quite jaded here. Little things bother me far more than they should. A city I used to love has become a city I now critique far more often than I compliment.
In 2020, I’d like to try to be more grateful about living here and the unique opportunities I’ve been blessed to have. I want to relax a little more, and remember that I chose to live here.
I should enjoy the great things this city has to offer, rather than allow the small things to disproportionately stress me out.
Travel
While I had a chance to visit Los Angeles this year, that’s actually the only new place I saw. 8 hours enjoying a new city isn’t exactly what I’d envisioned for myself when I decided to move across the world at 18. Fortunately, I’ve already planned a trip to Malaysia for January 2020. I’ll get to explore at least 1 new city within the next month or so.
Now that I have a respectable work setup, I’ll try to visit 1-3 new countries in 2020 as well. Possibly Myanmar, Indonesia, the Phillipines, and/or Taiwan. I’d be pumped about seeing any of those places, and like I said with family above, while taking a trip may set me back $500 or whatever in the short-term, I’ve never regretted traveling somewhere new, and I’m confident in my ability to quickly make that money back in the future as I become a better developer.
I also imagine a quick break from Saigon every couple months will refresh me and help me remember why I chose to live here.
Health
I’m in probably the worst physical shape I’ve ever been in as a teenager or adult. I rarely lift weights anymore, and I walk way less as a tech professional than as an English teacher. I also only juggle a few hours a week whereas in the past I was juggling a few hours per day.
Beyond merely my fitness, I’ve had difficulties getting enough rest in recent months as well. Between working long hours, and having a lack of personal time to wind down, I’ve been averaging closer to 7.5-8 hours of sleep rather than the 8.5-9 hours I feel most comfortable with.
A lack of rest along with being a bit tired of Saigon have made me more irritable than I’d like to admit. While I’ve been great about never allowing this irritation into my work, it has resulted in me being less courteous in my personal life from time to time.
In 2020 I’d like to take care of my health a bit better than in 2019. Doing so will allow me to feel better about myself, and also help me to be a more consistently kind person to others as well.
Overall
I don’t regret how 2019 played out. It’s been a great year. I knew I was going to have to let a couple areas of my life slide to get my career on-track. In 2020 I’m going to continue to develop my skills and experience in the tech industry, while also taking better care of myself and going on some EPIC travel adventures.
Hopefully, you’ll be here for the 2020 Review post to see amazing pictures that verify I’m a man of my word 😉