Reflecting back at 2019

This is the first time I’m writing a blog post on reflecting back on a year. Its been a different year so I thought its good to look back and see what I have learned, what challenges did I tackle or face and what was new during the last year. I always end up in not appreciating or acknowledging myself on what I learned or achieved. So I thought it would be good to look back so I know what’s 2019 been like for me.

• My year 2019 started off with this news - 

Sooo proud of my @spkeazee mentee @Parveen_Khan10 who just landed her first international speaking engagement!!! Congrats, Parveen! 🎉https://t.co/1SfuAB64FY

— Angie Jones (@techgirl1908) January 30, 2019

• I attended my first ever conference and that was TestBash Brighton which couldn't have been possible without the help from Angie Jones and Richard Bradshaw. 

Finally the countdown begins 😎Sooo looking forward for my first #testbashbrighton #testbas tomorrow. I'm sooo desperate as I'm going to meet @techgirl1908 @lisihocke @shivani_gaba_ @simon_tomes and many new testbashers.. Thanks @ministryoftest @FriendlyTester @techgirl1908 pic.twitter.com/NW3oLG8wEH

— Parveen (@Parveen_Khan10) April 4, 2019 

• I have presented at 5 different conferences at different locations like London, Manchester, USA, Germany, Budapest and presented my stories. I started my speaking journey in 2018 and presented at an online conference. This was my first year of speaking and I got the opportunity to present at international conferences which was overwhelming and exciting for me. I got a chance to meet so many inspiring people. 

🎉 My mentee just became an international conference speaker! 🎉

Soooo proud of @Parveen_Khan10 https://t.co/QUhtUnM4l6 pic.twitter.com/xyPL6mfHgu

— Angie Jones (@techgirl1908) June 26, 2019

• I also presented at 3 online conferences, 1 online meetup and was part of a panel discussion with Lisa Crispin, Simon Prior and Joe Colantonio. It was such an honour to be on this panel and I had a great experience being part of this. 

July 17th: A panel of leading testing practitioners @joecolantonio, @Parveen_Khan10, @siprior, and @lisacrispin will share their insights about traditional testing and quality processes and the pitfalls to avoid in tech transformations. https://t.co/pGJmWLA5PS

— mabl (@mablhq) July 8, 2019

• I gave my first conference talk at Testing Summit London 2019 and I got invited to present again at Test Summit London in 2020.
•  I was new to this entire testing community and 2019 was the year of networking. I never used twitter or slack groups but I started being more active since this year. It really helped me in lot of ways. I could share my learnings, my happiness, my achievements, I'd reach out if I had any questions. What's more wonderful was the overwhelming response from the community to help me find my job 

Thank you everyone for helping me 😊💖🙏.I totally love this community.A very special and Biiig thanks to @DannyDainton for helping me find this job.A very super special thanks to @techgirl1908 🙏💖😊 for supporting and helping me.YASSSS, I accepted an offer and I got the job😊😎 https://t.co/4N4rWq1DyQ

— Parveen (@Parveen_Khan10) October 10, 2019

• I started sharing my experiences by writing blog post and sharing it on mabl and testingindevops. This was my first time writing a blog post and I managed to write 3 blog posts and willing to write more in 2020. 
• Got so inspired by Lisi and Toyer's learning partner journey that I started my learning partner journey with Simon Berner 

Hey @lisihocke and @tottiLFC I finally found my learning partner. Im so super excited to share this. @alientester thanks for being my learning partner. Thank you @lisihocke and @tottiLFC for this inspiration, I am following your footsteps to learn and start my journey. pic.twitter.com/c88KvSLMts

— Parveen (@Parveen_Khan10) November 15, 2019

• I had a goal for 2019 to have my own blog site and I finally have one - - https://www.parveenkhans.com/p/blog.html 
• I started my #TestingTour inspired by Lisi to become more confident as a tester by pairing with different people on various topics and started sharing my journey on my blog site. I already had wonderful sessions with Maaret, Amitai Schleier, Mirjana Andovska, Rob Meaney and Tariq King. And also have few sessions booked in for January and February which I'm really looking forward to. 

I was part of @lisihocke starting her #TestingTour and now similarly a part of @Parveen_Khan10 getting started with her #TestingTour. Learning without physical borders, pairing online, allows us all to learn from one another. pic.twitter.com/4t63G5bcKq

— Maaret Pyhäjärvi (@maaretp) December 8, 2019

Had the honor of participating in the #TestingTour journey of @Parveen_Khan10. What a great initiative. Kudos. https://t.co/inK2SwvUvZ

— Tariq M. King (@tariq_king) December 17, 2019  

• The pattern for me in 2019 was all about coming out of comfort zone, doing things which I  have never done before, being brave and courageous, had ups and downs and still trying to learn to deal with those things, learning new topics. Overall it was an awesome year for me and really looking forward to continuing learning and sharing more in 2020.