Hey! This is my first Hashnode blog! I’m happy to be a part of this community.🙂 Let’s start with a little intro- my name is Lily Khan. I’m a high school student from India, as well as a designer and front-end developer. I enjoy writing CSS, bullet journaling, listening to EDM and rap, taking photos, and watching anime. Feel free to shoot me a message on Twitter if you want to talk about them! („• ᴗ •„)

This year wasn't as productive as the last. For most of the time, I was busy with my exams and IRL issues but still, I want to reflect on what I did.

Let’s start with my projects: I’ve participated in a lot of hackathons, so most of my projects were made for them.

Projects

The environment is such an important topic for me. Working on ideas that can help improve and spread awareness about the environment is fun. This year we made 3 projects based on environmental themes- Enviromation, EcoTopia and Nowaste. Both Enviromation and EcoTopia won, but something really weird happened with Nowaste.

Losing after winning

Let me set the scene. Nowaste was a hackathon project about how we can all make small changes to reduce the amount of waste we produce.

We discussed how to best approach the problem and I started working on the design. Then I sent messages to my other teammates to start their part of backend and ML. I had one teammate named Yash, who was amazing. I asked them to help me with the front-end of the site and waited for other teammates to show up, but no one else did until the end. Yash and I were almost done with the front-end but since the other teammates didn’t come, I became frustrated. I couldn’t sleep for two nights. However, the remaining teammates finally showed up 20 minutes before the submission. But it was already so late! I quickly added some other features as an image (.png format, non-working) and asked others to write the post and video for the submissions. We were able to submit it right before the deadline.

Then, after a few hours, when we were supposed to join the closing ceremony, a funny thing happened! We won 1st place in Techacks and won an iPad. I was so happy that after all that we won!!! My hard work didn’t go to waste. But... they said that 2 of our teammates didn't fill the extra registration form, so we were sadly disqualified. After all that, I was so pissed NGL >_< that was the most annoying day this year. Even if we didn't win, I’m still proud of the design I made in just a few hours. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🙃

Other than that, I’ve worked on projects like -

• Login with Replit page- One of my favorite projects of 2021 was a login page design. It got 130+ upvotes on Replit, and amazing feedback from the community. Looking back, I think I could’ve done, better but I'm still happy with the positive reviews. Let me know your thoughts!!
• SPED- A platform that aims to revolutionize remote learning for children with learning disabilities. Won 1st Place Beginner Hack in HackTable.
• CogniFit- A site that helps prevent cognitive deterioration, with features like memory games, a to-do list and an emotion camera.
• Venlo- I designed the website for an open-source project called Venlocode, which aims to make open-source self-sustainable.
• Compostera- An AI cam to see if your compost is ready to use. It was a hackathon project that won 1st Place in the Best Hardware Hack category.
• Skinre- A Google Chrome extension and website created to help people find suitable products to treat skin damage. It was the first project I used TailwindCSS for, really proud of it too!

Check out more of my cool designs on my Dribbble profile . ✨

Socializing

I’m not too social IRL but I love being part of amazing communities online, such as Replit, FreeCodeCamp, and more. I’m so grateful that I met so many new people, worked with them on projects, and even called a few of them! Hackathons are a fun way to meet new people and collab with them.

I’m so thankful for the opportunities I’ve gotten from Replit too. In May, I got a chance to have a call with Andrew Reed - tbh I was scared, but Andrew was so sweet and in the end, it was easy talking to him.

Also, I recently had a call with Lena and YK, two employees at Replit, for a YouTube video (which will hopefully be out soon). I had an exam on the 6th of December, and after that, I was extremely tired. We had planned to have a call at 2 am the day after. I was all hyped about it, but just 10 minutes before the call, I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was 3 am. I was so scared to read Lena's messages because I made her wait for so long! I felt so bad, but I decided to text her... Luckily, she was online at that time and was free so we had a call then. It was so fun talking with her, She was so sweet and I had so much fun talking with her! 💙

I hope to meet more people next year! Working with different and amazing people is such a fun way to learn new things, and being in communities inspires you to do your best. Seeing people your age (or younger) working on cool projects, helping others, and learning and growing with them is better than working alone.

Achievements

In June, Replit hosted community awards and I was nominated for the Perfectionist and Friendliest Friend award. I ended up winning Friendliest Friend award. Now, I’m nominated for them again! You can vote for me here. 🙃 I’ve won so many hackathons this year, but my biggest achievement was buying a laptop for myself with my own money. It feels so amazing to buy something by yourself. I’m proud of that. <3

Finally, I overcame my fears and applied for an internship (I hope to hear back from them in 2022). I'm very excited about that! 🤞

Well, that's about all! This year might not have been the best, but it wasn’t the worst. I hope 2022 will be great. I wish you all a very happy and safe New Year! Bye! ( ´ ▽ ` )/