2025 Year in Review: The Wins, the Losses, and the Work No One Saw

An Honest Accounting of a Year That Changed Me

2025 was not a year I can summarize with highlights alone. It was a year of visible wins and quiet, striking losses, a year of progress that looked impressive on paper and work that happened entirely out of sight. Some days felt like a moment of momentum, while others felt like bare survival. The year started with high hopes and ended with crystal clarity. This is not a victory lap or a sob story; it is an honest account of what it meant to keep showing up, keeping my head up, learning, rebuilding, and becoming, even when no one was watching.

National Health Fellowship (NHF)

The year started with me sending out numerous applications (as usual), with one of them being to join the National Health Fellowship during the first cohort of the program. I wanted to put my undergraduate degree to use after all.

The National Health Fellowship is a prestigious program of the Government of Nigeria, led through the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative SWAp Coordination Office under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. I sent out my application in January 2025, and I was then scheduled for both virtual and onsite interviews in February 2025. Long story short, I was part of the 774 NHF meritoriously selected among 360, 000 applicants for cohort one.

On the 6th of March, 2025, the inauguration of the first cohort of the National Health Fellowship took place at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.

Post NHF Inauguration

After the inauguration, the excitement faded quickly, and the work began almost immediately. What followed was a structured transition from ceremony to responsibility.

We were onboarded into the fellowship through a mix of in-person workshops such as the MAMII workshop, autism training, virtual learning, and mentorship. The workshops exposed us to the realities of leadership, public service, and health systems work in Nigeria, less theory, more truth. The asynchronous courses filled in the technical gaps, particularly in areas such as public health, M&E, and community engagement.

Soon after, I was deployed to Obowo LGA in Imo State, where the fellowship stopped being abstract. This was where I worked closely with PHC staff, local health authorities, and community stakeholders, and began to understand maternal and child health challenges at the ground level.

The introduction of the capstone project anchored everything. My focus on a maternal and child health seminar aimed at strengthening PHC capacity forced me to plan, coordinate, and execute within real constraints.

Academic Pursuit and Growth

At the start of 2025, I made a deliberate decision to stretch myself, not for appearances, but to see how much I could actually carry. I wanted to test my limits, intellectually and emotionally. I jokingly called it my “year of certificates,” but underneath that joke was a serious commitment to learning, consistency, and showing up even when it felt heavy.

MSc Program

I had already begun my postgraduate journey in 2024, so I knew 2025 would demand a lot. Between coursework, research, and everything else happening in my life, there were moments when the workload felt overwhelming. Still, I stayed the course.

In the first quarter of the year, I delivered a seminar presentation to my faculty on the metabolic consequences of chronic hyperglycemia and the role of Nrf2 in liver protection. Later in the year, I completed and defended my project proposal. This milestone that brought both relief and renewed focus. As the year closed, my attention shifted toward completing the program, which I plan to wrap up in early 2026.

This picture below was taken a few minutes before the proposal defense.

This picture below was taken a few minutes after the proposal defense. The photo shows a tired with a grateful face.

AltSchool Africa SWE Diploma

Alongside my academic work, I continued my journey at AltSchool Africa, which I started in August 2024. The program required consistency, discipline, and a lot of late nights. It wasn’t just about writing code; it was about learning how to think, build, and ship.

By the time I completed the one-year School of Engineering program, I had not only earned my Diploma in Frontend Engineering, but also finished top of the leaderboard among frontend students, a result of steady effort rather than shortcuts. I represented my posterity first with pride, and graduated grateful and confident in how far I had come in my SWE career.

This phase of my year reminded me that growth is rarely loud. Most times, it’s just you, your screen, and the decision to keep going.

Aside from academic and professional pursuits, I also undertook leadership courses and programs this year.

Losses Before Wins

In this section, I briefly highlight some of the losses that impacted my life this year.

Earlier in the year, I lost a job due to financial challenges within the company I was working with. The loss took a toll on me, as I had to navigate an unanticipated phase of uncertainty quickly.

Secondly, I made the difficult decision to end a long-standing partnership that had become unsustainable. While it was not an easy choice, it was a necessary one, and I am confident it was the right decision.

The Wins

Despite how heavy the year often felt, there were wins. Real ones. Some were loud and visible, others quiet and deeply personal. Together, they reminded me that progress does not always announce itself; sometimes it simply shows up in finished work, better systems, and renewed confidence.

Workspace Upgrade

In the second quarter of the year, I made a deliberate decision to invest in my workspace. I had learned, the hard way, that productivity and clarity are closely tied to environment. If I was going to keep showing up daily, I needed a setup that supported focus and long hours of deep work.

I upgraded to a multi-monitor setup and refined my workspace into something both functional and comfortable. It was not just about aesthetics; it was about creating a space that facilitated consistency. I documented this journey, from 2022 through 2025, in a short thread on X, partly for posterity and partly as a reminder of how small upgrades compound over time.

Work Accomplishments

At MyTherapist.ng, one of our primary engineering goals for 2025 was accessibility. Therapy should not fail because of device limitations, poor app compatibility, or last-minute technical issues.

I worked closely with the team to ship one of the most important updates in the platform’s history, full web access to therapy sessions via app.mytherapist.ng. This meant users could book sessions, join video calls, and manage their accounts seamlessly across mobile, tablet, and desktop browsers. It also meant therapists could now manage sessions and clients directly from their phones, removing a long-standing barrier that had affected session delivery.

Seeing this update reduce friction between people and mental health care was deeply fulfilling. It was a reminder that good engineering, done thoughtfully, can have a real human impact.

Building Beyond Work

Outside my core role, I continued building.

I designed and shipped an AI-powered Design System Generator, a tool that automates the creation of production-ready design systems using Strapi, Next.js, and Cloudflare Workers AI. It was born out of a familiar frustration, repeatedly rebuilding the same foundational patterns across projects. This tool allowed teams to generate components, documentation, and usage guidelines in seconds, not weeks.

I also launched v3 of my personal portfolio, a complete redesign that focuses on clarity, performance, and improved storytelling. It now reflects the intersection of my work in digital health, software engineering, research, and technical writing, and serves as a living archive of my growth.

New Beginnings

Toward the latter part of the year, I joined Ridene Technologies, where I am part of a team building financial infrastructure to support efficient tax remittance. Stepping into this role felt like alignment, a chance to apply everything I had learned while contributing to systems with national and economic relevance.

Looking Ahead

As the year drew to a close, I found myself thinking less about urgency and more about direction. There is a lot ahead, decisions to make, goals to pursue, and experiences to lean into. One thing I am certain about is movement. In 2026, I aim to push beyond the limits of comfort, both geographically, professionally, and personally. Travel.

Beyond Work

Outside of milestones and deliverables, 2025 was also a year of people. I connected with many, built a few meaningful friendships, offered help where I could, and learned the quiet value of community. This year also, I listened to almost 15k minutes of musics, watched over 10 movies, and read fewer than 10 books.

I am deeply grateful to my family and to the friends who shared this year with me, those who checked in, challenged me, believed in me, and inspired me simply by how they lived. Some shared my vision, others expanded it. In many ways, they became mirrors and muses, reminding me that growth does not happen in isolation.

Carrying 2025 Forward

2025 taught me that growth is rarely loud, consistency outlasts motivation, and documenting the journey matters, especially when the days feel repetitive or heavy.

I am stepping into the next year clearer, steadier, and more intentional. And if you are reading this while still figuring things out, still rebuilding, still becoming, know this: showing up counts, even when no one is watching.

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