On Getting Back Up

All the long hour tutorials on machine learning, all the days spent discussing machine learning, it was now time to get to do something with it at the AccessBank Hackathon event in Lagos. You only do not want to attend these events for the price money, but the price money is usually a wonderful motivation to keep you going.

The dream was set, but well, at the end, my team, the Edge, was edged out of winning. We did not get the first, second or even third and that was bad. I began to wonder what had happened to all those sessions and tutorials I had watched and what had happened so far to me. I began to ask if I was indeed even interested in being a data scientist or it was just another dream to wake up from.

But on my way back from Lagos to Abuja, I had some time to think about the person I was when I attended the event and the new person I have become. The new me heading back to Abuja. I realized one very important thing, even though my team did not win, my team had learned a lot. A whole lot that can be implemented in a whole new area of machine learning. While learning, I had also understood areas I needed to improve on, the key things I was lacking since I started out as a novice Data scientist.

And one of them was about practicing and documentation. It is important to note that even the best still take time out to practice and sometimes, you do not need to remember it all. Just check it up. With these 2 key ideas, I have understood the areas of my weakness and what to do about it. So many people might say this is simple to know and understand and you would have to be a moron not to know it, but when the results of not doing it really touches you first hand, you learn it the hard way.

I have learned it and I believe I would be a better data scientist with the experience. It has taken me to the rock bottom because when you feel you know something and its time to show it and you cannot, then all you know might not really matter anymore. It has really hit me hard.

But one way to handle it is to complain and whine about the problem, or continue to get myself back up and get better. The best action after the event is to indeed learn from the lessons the event had impacted and for me, I am taking them and imbibing them to the fullest in my life by God’s grace.

So no matter what is currently happening in your life, which might or might not be similar to my case, you have an option to either continue complaining about it, or doing something about it. Challenges show us the weakness in our plans and one thing is to be grateful if anyone or anything points out our weakness. We learn and become stronger.

So as you start your day today, whether you have been broken or not, know that you can always be better than your circumstances make you see or believe. I still wish my team won but even without winning, we have to learn and build ourselves again. The future is a product of our current decisions, the past is in the past. So start your day everyday with a renewed spirit to be better than whatever your situation makes you believe.

But first, you must be willing to put in the work, for me, it means more work now more than ever needs to go into the dream I have. Seek to make your challenges a way to grow and you would keep growing everyday.

Be that person you want to be and do not let challenges stop you. The world awaits your greatness.