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wow. my last summer before i launch myself into the real, adulting world has now passed.

there's quite a bit that has been done, and more unfinished business than i'd hoped there to be, yet, i am somewhat satisfied with the summer of '25.

for the reflection on this summer, for the blog reader(s), i'll keep it short and reflect based off of my summer checklist:

i admit, i was very ambitious and looking forward to a very productive summer, but this led to me forgetting to take care of the balance, causing it to lead to some extreme burnout a few weeks in.

nevertheless, i prevailed to complete half of my checklist (based off of the things i genuinely wanted to do and found important).

in order, i'll look into how successful i was in checking off all the to do's :3

1. create a notion project portfolio

successful!

although towards the end of the summer i didn't update it as much as i should of, it's still a good basis for a project portfolio in case i did not get a portfolio site done by the end of the summer

the sectioning also provided a clear distinction between my required projects due to a-levels and university and my own personal projects

2. update linkedin profile for end of 2nd year

successful!

after not touching linkedin to edit my profile since innovation fest at the end of 1st year, i would like to think i significantly improved my profile by adding in more details to the project section and my bio

3. finish creating spotify dupe of a portfolio

successful!

i had this idea before applying to the spotify internship back in february to create a portfolio with a spotify theme or one inspired by the ui/ux design of the spotify app. at first it was fully green (my favourite colour is green), but when i thought a bit more about it, i decided to try my best to replicate the spotify desktop and mobile apps as much as possible, of course with the edit of it being a portfolio

not only did i enjoy making this, and have others see the high resemblance between my spotify themed portfolio and the web app, but i also was able to finish a version of the portfolio using react to help reduce all the redundant code (sadly did not do this for this blog too). i am very happy with the way it turned out as it is my first time using react in a project, and i can't wait to now utilise react in my future projects

4. create a blog site for this summer

successful!

easier said than done. i was very into it in the beginning stages but ended up not regularly committing my blogs and left all posts til the last minute, though i did it (and love the look of it!)!

5. start coding a scrapbook site with friends

successful!

though we haven't properly started coding yet, i can say we've started prototyping our user interface on a shared figma file and it's looking good!

6. be able to write and read all hiragana characters

successful!

the motivation for this is known to close friends and family: i went to japan for the first time in january, and gosh, how i loved it!

alongside my love for anime, manga, japanese culture and my newest growing interest in karuta, both my cousins on my dad's side speak fluent japanese. upon my first time meeting them in real life, i was inspired and my interest in learning japanese (again) had sparked. i can now read and write all hiragana characters, recognise and write a few katakana characters and understand a few common phrases in japanese. i can't wait to be back in the country in 2027!

7, 8, 9. finish a1 japanese, a2 french and german courses on busuu

...unsuccessful

those who know me from secondary school or sixth-form would know how much i enjoyed taking german and french at gcse. though i did not get the grades i wanted (7s in both), i still tend to slip in some french or german phrases in my daily conversations. with this alongside my personal need to learn japanese to a fluent level, i decided to add these to my summer checklist

however, this summer has taught me that even if i can multitask multiple important things, trying to learn three languages at once can be a bit tiring (and sometimes confusing) when i also have other things i want to do alongside it. hence, i will try to aim to finish these three goals at my own pace

10. finish the foundation for compclub hub 2.0

...unsuccessful

i kind of knew it was going to end up like this (context: whenever i really want to do a project i still end up procrastinating it)

by foundation i meant i would've liked to complete redesigning the database and ui/ux for this web app but ended up getting bored of it by the middle of summer - i guess it's a project for another time

11. gain 2 industry recognised certifications on datacamp & 12. finish javascript algorithms and data structures course & certification on freecodecamp

...unsuccessful

these were two to-do's that i knew i was probably not going to do this summer either

i would say the reason for this would be lack of motivation and burnout. i know that in the middle of the summer i found myself stuck in trying to complete a track in datacamp and i tried to just finish it for the sake of it rather than enjoy what i was learning. now, this is not to say i don't enjoy these two things, but to say i should of attached a greater reason to motivate myself to complete them

and lastly, 13. research for final year project

successful!

although i didn't do as much research into my project than i expected to do, knowing what i genuinely wanted to do for my final year project was a good enough sign to me that i was comfortable with what i chose and knew enough about it

last friday i went into uni and confirmed the supervisor i wanted to help oversee my final year project, and that i wanted to do a portfolio site builder using php and a database (after more research, i am leaning towards a sql database)!

and that completes the summer of '25 project by yours truly, me! see you again sometime?